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

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.

It actually began as a quest for a better understanding of God. I read The Bible, cover to cover. Twice. Then I read a paraphrased version of same that my eldest sister had, called "The Way." I asked questions about God and Christianity.

The more I learned, the less sense it all made, and the less sense it all made, the more pointed my questions became. The answers to those questions were very unsatisfying, such as, "The Lord works in mysterious ways," or, "God is above logic." Sometimes my questions would be ignored, sometimes I was told, "We should not ask such things," and one apparently troublesome question got me in trouble, "But how do we know Mary was a virgin?"

During about the same time period, my late teens and early adulthood, my appreciation and understanding of science began to grow. As a boy I had always had an interest, but with an immature understanding of its significance. I had a chemistry set, a geology set, and a weather station. Meteorology, in particular, garnered a lot of interest. I expanded my weather station beyond its out-of-the-box capabilities and built an outdoor enclosure for most of the instruments.

Years later, pondering college, I strongly considered studying meteorology. Instead, I decided on a Physics major and Chemistry minor. It did not go well (a story for a different time,) so I redeclared for Computer Information Systems. By then, though, I was firmly atheist. I mention it because it was the growing interest in and increasing understanding of science that sealed the deal.

Religion and science are not polar opposites, as so many are led to believe. However, they directly oppose each other in one critical respect -- religion, Christianity in particular, discourages knowledge unless it is "knowledge of God and his will." Science encourages knowledge -- and, in fact, the scientific method prescribes a methodology for obtaining knowledge.

When I was told that "worldly knowledge is evil" is when the point was driven home. The Church does not like questions that challenge its teachings. Why? Because they either have no answer or because the only possible answer would produce a contradiction.

It is dishonest. The teachings are lies.

Science doesn't mind questions, but rather encourages them. Finding a contradiction is applauded because it is an opportunity to learn. If you want to know how something is known to science, you get an answer to your question, not someone telling you, "We should not ask such things." If you ask a question for which there is no good answer, you will get a response such as, "that is a good question," or, "no-one has figured that out just yet," or something similar. You won't get an answer like, "The Big Bang works in mysterious ways."

All of this led to my complete and utter rejection of all things religious. My family, of course, was mortified that I rejected God. To this day, someone will occasionally try to pull me back into the fold.

Yeah. Whatever. Good luck with that.

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.

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