Someone once said, Religion is a belief, Atheism is a conclusion. That's pretty much how it happened for me. I didn't choose it, exactly. What I chose is to look for evidence, and I found none.

Here's a link to a blog post I wrote shortly after leaving my cult:

[slayer1am.blogspot.com]

To summarize, for those too lazy to click, there are four "rings" or layers of process to evaluate:

1. Local, or the church/temple you physically attended. Were they teaching anything outside of your denomination/belief system because of personal motive? Is the local leadership above reproach or not?

2. Denomination, or the branch of theology you previously believed. Can error be found in the new teachings that originally spawned this particular theology? What is the history leading up to the new movement forming?

3. Fundamental theology, or the root belief that your denomination came from. Can it be proved correct or wrong? Are there fatal flaws in the reasoning behind the beliefs?

4. The supernatural, or any teaching that deals with a spirit realm of any kind. Does evidence exist that anything of the sort exists? Can it be proven that the supernatural impacts our physical world?

You can go backwards or forwards through the list. Easier to go 1, 2, 3, 4 if you're dealing with someone who still attends. With atheists, you might go 4, 3, 2, 1., etc. etc.

I accidentally found out that we have no soul. Thus no heaven, no salvation. And it went downhill from there.

I asked too many questions and never got satisfactory answers. Over time, these inconsistencies compounded until I stopped believing first in the church, then Jesus, and eventually god. And I'm much happier for it.

I started sniffing the BS while attending church (evangelical) as a youngster. Became an even more critical thinker with more education. I wouldn't say a choice but more of a growing realization.

I was raised Catholic. It was easy to leave the church when I realized that not even the priest believed in the same God. At 8 I just said, screw it, if everyone gets their own god thats perfect for them but won't do anything to help you, then you might as well not have one at all. Boom! Outed atheist at 8. I never really bought it either.

It was just a natural conclusion that came about my skepticism of the supernatural, and the logical shortcomings of religion. Anything that was ever seemingly vindicated by the religious, I would soon find dozens more counter arguments that show holes or expose the half truths that religion and apologists would feed you. Reality was just never on their side, and just like a child logically grows out of Santa Clause, I could never firmly believe in what was either totally made up shit, or grossly embellished stories. Nothing has ever thoroughly pointed to a God existing, there is always something more rational at play. Accepting the existence of a God with no sound proof to me just leads to a slippery slope where I may as well accept other equally bonkers fairy tale nonsense.

I have also noticed as I grow up, watch debates, listen to professional scholars on both sides, a trend. While both sides can prove to communicate quite eloquently, be verbose even, the Atheists still always manage to stay clear and concise in their argumentation. I KNOW what they are saying at least 90% of the time, their message is not muddled, they don't always take a paragraph in what can be said in a sentence. Religious apologists though...that drone on and on and on before making really weak points. They more often than not adhere to "baffle them with bullshit" tactics, and I always find myself yelling in my head for them to get to the bloody point. Though when they DO get to the point, it's just not solid.

The way people communicate their points in these discussions tells me a lot about them. If you have to use word salad, endless prose, ect... it shows me a level of dishonesty as you are trying to take me for a ride instead of clearly laying things out and letting your fundamentals speak for themselves.

Do we really choose atheist or are we saying no to the other choices?

Getting to the heart of your question, I got out very young. My parents church of choice was Methodist to be forced on me.

I can attribute the seeds of doubt as the death of my sister. I was 6 and she was 5 in 1960. She had a hydrocephalic condition meaning spinal fluids did not drain from her head down the spine, hence the swells with retained fluid - did not know how to fix it them (this short version).

I dutifully prayed for her health, my parents did, yet she died. Seeds of doubt planted.
Academically, I struggled early in school. I could not read well. You get humiliated in class when it is your turn to read, blah blah blah - so forth and so on.
God life sucks, let me die. - Damn it, still here! more doubt.

Bible study did the trick. Some unqualified parent tried to lead bible lessons and discussion at church during the time of Confirmation. The questions were stupid for which the answer was always Jesus.
Could religion be this easy and dumb?

That was it, from then on I was always wary of religion rhetoric. What were their motives? Why are they so angry? Why are the stories so much like fairy tales?

From then on I was an atheist but it took until my 50 to be in a place and career position to become more public.

At about 6 years old, I began asking questions and the answers were always insufficient for my little mind. By the time I was around 12, I had determined it was all just so much hogwash and inwardly became an atheist. I announced to the world and family what my position was at 17, and never looked back. That was 60+ years ago.

I started doubting at a young age and I was terrified of the thought of Heaven because I wouldn't be myself anymore. When I was 25 years old I wanted to be a better Christian so I picked up the Bible and that failed immediately so I thought maybe I had the wrong religion so I started reading up on religions and then other gods and on and on and now I'm a militant atheist. Knowledge is power.

I never really was an Atheist. I moved towards Humanism as I was growing up without ever realizing that was a actual thing. It is only in the last dozen years I have come to realize that yes, there are others like me.

Reading the Bible

It might sound too simplistic but my journey towards atheism started on a Friday night in late July back in 2008 somewhere in the VA mountains east of Roanoke. I was on a week long camp with my church youth and on that particular night, we had a Christian rock singer a guest. He started prophesizing and told everybody in the audience to take their shoes off because the gravel covered ground from under us was holy. Kid you not, I was the only one there with my shoes still on out of about 200 people. That was the night I started doubting.

Books, youtube videos and actually reading the Bible steered me towards agnosticism/atheism.

Below is a short video from that particular camp.

Former Fundie. College made me agnostic. Matt Dillahunty made me atheist.

I was never a devoted religious altar boy.