I was an atheist long before I knew there was a word for it. I honestly assumed until about age 9 or 10 that most adults were.

All along. The only foundation for God came from 5-10 forced church trips as a child. It never made any sense to me at any point, the Christian angle(s).

I was 16, and no one at church, or anyone who I talked to, could answer the real question of. What prof do you have, other then you believe?

I remember always having doubts. But I left my parents church when I was 17, but I spent a few years before I definitely described myself as an atheist.

For me, the biggest challenge of leaving a religion was not losing belief, that was easy. The hard part was losing that sense of community and belonging you get by being a part of a church. That sense of community and belonging, to be is the only semi-positive thing religion provides.

Humans evolved as social animals that grouped together to increase our chances of survival. We all have it, some stronger than other, but we all do have an innate need to belong to a group and/or community. I think it is this innate need, which religion (mostly) fulfills that makes peopel stay in religion, een when they have serious doubts.

It is very hard for a person to leave their religion unless they are part of some other kind of group. This is also, in part, why many religions discourage people from associating with persons outside of their own religion. An outside support system makes it easier to leave religion.

Add in the factor that many peopel simply can't or won't admit when they are wrong, and you end up with people who attend church, nto because they believe, but solely because they'd be embarrassed about beign wrong and all their frieends are par tof the church.

I was a pretty intelligent child. But I was raised as a Christian in the middle of Mississippi so I was probably about 15 when I finally dropped religion. It took me a while longer to be open about my atheism since I did live in MS.

My story is not so unusual, being raised in TN, in the buckle (literally) of the Bible Belt. I was raised a pk with two fairly non-conservative (liberal for the time perhaps) parents and 4 siblings. I grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian's. I remember both of my parents allowing and promoting me to be me and question whatever I thought necessary to question. I didn't question that many things outloud though. The religious things I did question, dad always had an answer for. He didn't interpret the Bible literally and he was more of a New Testament preacher. He was fascinated with dreams though and would interpret them in a scriptural, superbeing way. He had the 'faith' but his approach was unconventional. I had questions that I mostly kept to myself. One I remember very well (probably around 10 or 11), because I never found a suitable answer for. Why aren't there any miracles happening now? Why was there a flurry and now non? I went through all kinds of searching and methods of searching that I could think of up until I was 26. I finally 'proved to myself' that there wasn't a god and no reason for there to be one. Not one particular incident but an accumulation of many years of searching.

I was probably about ten. My mother had told me to "find my own beliefs she would not impart hers onto me" and the easiest thing was to catch the church bus at that age with friends. I realized by the fourth time I'd been baptized (because I didn't feel Jesus in my heart and that meant I'd burn in hell) that I was just scared. And I didn't want to do things because of someone scaring me.
Of course I didn't formulate all this at the time, but being scared was essentially the reason I stopped going.

Same here. For a good 30-something years, I WANTED to believe in the Christian god, and soon after, I got into Wicca, but then came to feel ridiculous about wanting to believe in a higher power. I'm as high as it's gonna get! I believe in MY potential now! As well as in science....

Zanyfish, you aren't the only one that feels dumb about being indoctrinated by religion- for me it started when I was born. The only reason it continued was because of my lack of education. Yes, it lasted about "30 years" too. Now I constantly read, not to become a 'world class' scholar (which would be fantastic) but because of curiosity. Facts interest me- lies make me angry.

I knew that I was a nonbeliever by my mid teens, however, I didn't know there was a specific name for my mental position until I was probably in my early 20's.

I lost all belief in a Biblical, or dogmatic, God around 28. I then filtered between various ideas, including my Jewish roots, for 25 years. Wound up with non-chanting Zen. How original is that?

I grew up in a diverse family. One side (my mothers) went to church, somewhat, but never really preached/practiced the teachings of the bible. My father's side, never spoke of religion or god but my grandma would bring me to church because I asked. I grew up going to church by choice. I just recently went with my children. I was always skeptical and always found myself getting lost in very deep thought and questioning everything. I couldn't and still cannot bring myself to believe it. I used to feel extremely guilty for questioning "God" and my faith, but I feel strongly that my views and opinions are correct by not believing. I have raised my children up teaching them what people believe, from each view point, I've brought them to a non-denominational church, not steady, but periodically, and I want them to be able to grow up to be able to freely think for themselves and form their own opinions and beliefs. I've recently opened up as an atheist/anti-thiest. So, basically 27 years.

I knew I didn't believe at 7 but it took me another 20 years to understand what I did believe and how it contrasted with other beliefs so I could articulate it.

My first 20 years.

I gave up on organized religion in my early teens. I had questions that when asked was told to go pray and ask for forgiveness. If one religion was the truth then wouldn't we all be attracted to it? If God could speak to a human being then why not all humans? What would God need with an animal sacrifice? Why would God endorse slavery? Silly questions like that. As I grew older, religion just didn't make sense and I noticed that it divided people. I finally decided to live and let live and I am much happier for it.

In my teenage years I started to wonder about some things of the things that I had been taught in church that didn't make sense to me. This continued on for probably 30 years. I didn't go to church and if ever asked I just said I was not really religious. In my mid forties I started to seriously think about these things. Somehow I stumbled on YouTube and started watching videos of people who thought like me and I knew it was over. I finally admitted about 5 or 6 years ago that I am an atheist.

66 year-young male. Musically-gifted-embrace-sufism-good-health-gregarious & yes i enjoy healthy-sex!