In high school, I began to question certain doctrines. For example, as a Catholic I was taught that unbaptized babies that die won't go to heaven but would go to Purgatory instead. I failed to see how a newborn child, without sin, was punished because no one baptized him/her. Here's another - eating meat on Friday was a sin. Until the 1960s when that was changed and it was OK to eat meat vs. fish on Fridays. I recall as a adolescent forgetting it was Friday and eating a hot dog then running home to my mother crying because I was going to hell. There were many more things I questioned. This sort of crap made no sense to me later. The other issue was seeing the hypocrisy of so many parishioners. Shoplifting/stealing, lying, cheating on their spouses, then acting sanctimonious during Sunday Mass. Oh, and then there was the parish priest who was sleeping with a high school student. Need I say more?

Getting a divorce and seeing my entire church turn on me, reading the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew and realizing that 98% if what I'd been taught wasn't even in the Bible, the Facebook hate memes posted by childhood evangelical friends during President Obama's terms, and especially during the last election. I felt ashamed and sick I'd ever been a part of that group.

Not one certain thing. It pretty much never made sense to me. I remember being around 8 years old and asking "How do we know the bible isn't a story like Cinderella?" Parents only came back with "you gotta have faith". When I was 12ish I asked "why do we think people had to come from a magical God? It could be as simple as a little bit of liquid water was on the right rock in our solar system" eventually in middle school I learned what atheist meant and was like "oh! That's me!" When I told my parents it was in passing. "Oh, I don't believe that, I'm an atheist" which I admit was an unfair shock to them but they weren't hard on me. Just a big pill to swallow really.

The most significant turn for me was when I was in an upper level history class and we actually discussed the historical facts surrounding some of the biblical settings, like Egypt. Then there was the fact that the man known as Jesus Christ (some histories don't even acknowledge the certainty of his existence) had died 200 years before the Bible was written.

And of course, I have read the Bible, the whole thing. The contradictions alone make your head hurt, if you're paying attention. If that wasn't bad enough there are the references telling you to be sheep throughout the Bible. Do you know that sheep are the stupidest animals on the planet? They will literally stand in a ditch as the water rises and drown, if there is no sheep dog or shepherd present to herd them to higher ground. To me that says they are telling you to be dumb and easily led ... nah, I think I'll pass on that. Thanks.

Between the ages of 3 and 12 I lived in a household that consisted only of me, my parents, and my father's aunt (I have no siblings). My parents were church-goers, but (luckily for me) far from fanatical: they went once or twice a month (taking me with them, of course). Only my great-aunt was insufferably religious, but not in an evangelical way, more in a strict Presbyterian sort of way — no games, whistling or excessive noise allowed on Sundays, for instance. I think it was she who started me thinking this whole religion thing wasn't all that great.

Then there was Sunday school, which I utterly disliked. It was on Sunday afternoon, so if it was one of those Sundays that I'd been to church in the morning, I'd lost pretty much the whole day. And it involved learning by heart some bible verses and bits of the shorter catechism, which made even less sense than the bible.

My great-aunt died when I was 12. I think by that time I was well on the way to being an atheist, and when I found out that Sunday school, unlike day school, wasn't actually compulsory, I simply stopped going. Church itself I didn't mind so much, and I can even remember one sunny, frosty Christmas morning that I practically dragged my parents there. But I was already on what my mother would have seen as the slippery slope away from faith. After a number of months of futile attempts at prayer, following the guide at the back of my hymn-book, and after reading Fred Hoyle's The Nature of the Universe, I decided that Christianity was not for me.

My mother was very unhappy about it, and always hoped I would 'return to the fold'. My father never expressed an opinion at any stage, as far as I can recall.

My childhood religious training was harsh and punitive. I often felt afraid to go to sleep, fearing that "god" would kill me in my sleep and I would wake up in "hell". I was repeatedly told that I was a bad person. I felt guilty and ashamed of myself. I was often told that every illness and every crisis was a punishment from god. So, I became atheist.

Too many things in the bible did not make sense to me. I always babysat my younger brothers and sister and cousins and family friends children. I could not accept god killing the first born of the Egyptians who were innocent children. What kind of god shows his power by killing the most innocent and the most vulnerable.

The people of that belief system that thought it was a fantastic idea to terrorize young children into fearing an invisible being while also condoning molestation and rape of said children,
I abandoned my religious beliefs from childhood because I learned who the real monsters are. I abandoned my familys beliefs because nobody was outraged when curtain inexcusable acts came to light.. oh and they where batshit crazy

1. The science and mathematics I learned in school.
2. The fact that the minister at our church was a liar.

Learning what they were asking me to do gaslight others and keep secrets of helping slave owners and other abuses of power for their faction because it was gods will whst we were doing it took me nine years of wars 14 if you count cyber to figure I couldnt help if they were fascist and pretending it was a democracy or freedom

For me it was realizing that someone who could have raped and murdered people were able to be so easily "forgiven" and given a place in Heaven just like the person who lived a good, charitable life.
I found that to seem unfair. I was in College at the time.

I would say family values of equality and critical thinking. After my siblings and I went to college there was basically an exodus where we all quit in a pretty short period of time. Basically started by my oldest brother who really didn’t fit in at BYU. All of us including my parents left the church.

When I went into the Military I was exposed to many beliefs. The most shocking was many people did not care about God at all. I realized that many beliefs coflicted with one another. They could not all be right and were as convinced as I was that their path was the correct one.

If there was one true religion, the majority of people had to be wrong. As highly unlikely as it was (almost impossible) I came to terms that it at least could be possible I was wrong. I was convinced that all the answers were in the bible and actually became more religious. I had nothing to fear "The truth would set me free", that It eventually did. Free from religion.

Over thiesm

I was allowed to read the "proper" (not children's) Bible at a young age. It didn't tally with the things I saw around me, that was the catalyst.

realizing God is a A$$hole

So much sorrow, abuse, and death in my family. That made me leave the religion.

Understanding hypocrisy and actually reading the bible did it for me. Of course, learning science didn't hurt either.

I moved out of my parents house, and away from religion. It wasn't until I had some very painful things happen to me that I thought I needed god. I really got serious about finding the truth about god, and dug into the Bible. The more I studied, the more farce I found. I immediately stopped believing the things I found not to be true, and the more I studied, the less I believed. Today I'm an atheist.

My parents were never hard-core Bible thumpers, so church seemed more like social hour. So when I started the weekly Bible study leading up to confirmation (12/13 yr old) I still had some freedom to think, and even the real basic stuff just didn't make sense. And I REALLY didn't like the idea of believing what I'm told with absolutely no evidence or obvious reason to believe. I also always hated the whole "sheep" analogy, I've never wanted to be a blind follower Then came the actual Confirmation, when I was asked to stand in front of everyone with a group of other 13 yr olds and promise to follow this belief system forever. I remember standing with this group of kids all being told to repeat after the minister, and my mouth moved but I couldn't bring myself to actually say the words, because I had been taught to never lie and making that promise would certainly be a lie. I didn't put an actual title on it until 6-7 years later when talking to a friend and we both realized that Athiest isn't the bad word we'd been taught it was.

My religious family was demonically possessed by their god/religion. We needed an Exorist. They walked religion, talked religion, always went to religious functions. it was rammed so far down my throat that I almost gagged to death. They actually turned me against the very philosophy they were trying to convert me into believing.

I was complaining in third grade that the school didn't have any cool books. My dad said, "read the bible, It's full of cool stuff." I took his advice and read it cover to cover. That's when I knew that it was all lies.

My first step outside of the religion was when I took a comparative religion course in college, and realized that they are all pretty much the same. So much for Catholicism being the "true faith." Then I took mythology and realized that they were aiming for the same thing. Finally, when my sister died at age 40 from breast cancer and I had prayed and prayed and prayed and then everyone said "God has a reason for everything," my response was "Enough."

I read the bible.

I was writing about this particular subject when you posted this question. How I became a Fundamentalist extremist in my childhood, its affects, and how I got out.