I asked the counselor at a bible camp “how do we know there is god”, when I was 8. The response was “ you just know”
I found that woefully inadequate and my doubt only grew from there. Left the church at 13 and became agnostic, evolved to atheist in early 20’s.

I was in grade 3 and came home for lunch. My father was home and I asked him "what religion are we" Mrs. Smith asked everyone what religion we are. Dad answered "tell Mrs. Smith we aren't superstitious". I did and she wasn't happy. My Mother wasn't all that happy either. My Father thought it all very funny. I did too 10 years later. I do remember my teacher being angry with me a lot. Sometimes for no reason. I had realized about Santa Claus so this wasn't a big jump. My mother went to church for the community and the good work they did helping those with less. She never fussed about Christian values or rules and lived by the "golden rule" do unto others.

When I was a child there was short period of time when I asked everyone I could why they believed in God and none of the answers ever made any sense and were self-evidently false.

I don't think anything specifically happened, per se. I just had too many questions that couldn't be answered except with blind faith. No thank you.

I found out there was no Santa Claus.

An idiot preacher told me that after I was saved my life and the lives of those around me would all change for the better. I learned very quickly that it would not fix my Dad's alcoholism, make my grandfather well, stop kids from teasing me about being the bootleggers daughter and a myriad list of other things. Thanks to the Carnegie Public Library I stopped reading dog and horse stories and started investigating other solutions and religions. I eventually realized I had no control over fixing anything but me.

I read the bible.

Living in utah and watching the hypocrisy.

It was my priest actually in our one on one cathesism classes. I had many many questions about religion and the Bible.

I stumped him on the last one, about Cain, what happened after he got kicked out of the Garden and where did the people come from?

He said Cain found the Nubians. He went on to say, "that's where faith comes into play." I was chastised for my eye roll.

I left the church unconfirmed. That was in 1965, when I was 15.

When I was 13, Michigan had a long, hard winter. Drifting snow covered the first floor of the house on the lake side.

Bored and restless, my 10 year-old brother and I decided to read the World Encyclopedias. Reading about rational philosophers Descartes and Spinoza fired my mind.

I realized the Bible is just a book of stories written by men.

At age 13, I became an atheist. I chose rational thought over magical beliefs.

Also hypocrisy. I was appalled by Christians who removed their Sunday manners with their Sunday clothes.

All I know is I was like 12 sitting in bible school learning about the great fall and suddenly I was like "um I don't actually believe in this" and got up and left and never went back.

The harassment, abuse, assaults, and hatred I got for it only further cemented my stance.

Got borned

I used my brain...was that easy!

When I was growing up religion was never really brought up in our house so I didn't really think about it at all. I guess maybe I thought we were non practicing Christians or something since everyone else around us was Christians. In middle school biology class our teacher (who was actually a tech ed teacher who was asked to teach biology because I guess they were short on teachers or something...) assigned us the very ridiculous (in my opinion) assignment to write an essay on whether or not we believed evolution was real. We had never been asked to write a similar opinion essay on any of the other concepts we had been taught and I remember turning to my friend next to me and asking "what the heck is going on with this assignment, it's weird?" and her turning back to me and saying that she thought evolution was made up and that God did it all. In that moment everything solidified in my mind, it was all bs. That assignment really backfired for that teacher whose aim was, I'm sure, to discredit the theory of evolution. I was nonreligious all along but that was the moment that it was solidified.

Logic

I'm a born atheist.

When I was about 3 years old, my mother married her second husband. My step-father Eduardo was my hero, and he did not follow any religion, which I did not know nor would I have understood what that meant at that young age. But my catholic grandma likeD Eduardo very much, and I heard her calling him “ateo” in a half-joking way (she was not fanatical about her religion). So, if my hero was an ateo, then I am an ateo!! It started like that. Later on, when I began understanding what an atheist was, I confirmed and consolidated my conviction that I actually was an atheist. Then over the years and through getting to know the nature of christians, I have become an antitheist.

In 6th grade I questioned a priest regarding eating meat on friday being a mortal sin. I asked him what is the job of the church? He didn't know what I was getting at, so I said isn't it the job of the church to get us to heaven? He agreed. So why is the church making up rules that will send us to hell? "How dare you" was his response. I've been an atheist ever since. And happily so.

I feel like the doubt was always there, and by early teens I was very confident I was right...
I didn't understand how Santa could fit down everyone's chimneys, how he had time to hit every home in the world, and how he could carry so many presents. When I learned he was bogus it just made so much more sense. A few years later I developed a lot of the same practicality type questions about gods until one day it hit me, maybe they're BS too?!?! So I started digging. Very shortly after that I doubted gods were real. And certainly didn't believe the christian version. From then on I sought answers to my questions in the sciences. Go science!

Why Something has to Happen?

Religion!

The more I read about religions the less any of it made sense.

I've always been agnostic, questioning religion but working in a church for eight years really opened my eyes to the business side of religion. I saw people misuse funds in a very selfish manner. It really made me wonder why I gave money tithe church. These people didn't live up to their own teachings. They were so judgemental and pious . Such egos.this really made me leave the church, even though it was my home. Once I left, I realized all religions are the same. Institutions of control. I do not wish to be controlled. It's all a fairy tale. I live for this life.

Logic slowly took over the intellectual hoops I saw to justify wishful thinking (There's an omniscient being who knows all and cares about all of us... Except some people who suffer through horrific events as part of some grand plan) :/

Nothing definitive....just eased into it...