For me, it was a priest continuously pressuring me to become a priest like him. Told me to dump my girlfriend and start my path to priesthood. I started looking at other religions and was Baptist for several years. But that got me to researching theology in general. When I started asking questions I couldn’t answer, it wasn’t long before I became agnostic.

I reached the age of about 7 0r 8, started questioning and got no reasonable answers.

"Let me get this straight: God created us, and he's all-powerful and all-knowing, so he knew exactly how we were going to turn out. He made everything, and he knows everything that's going to happen--so the whole Tree of Knowledge thing had to be his design, and plan. "We" did precisely what he made us to do, what he knew we were going to do--what he must have wanted us to do, otherwise how could he be perfect?--and he's punishing us for it??"

Nope nope nope nope nope...

Confession. When I was an adolescent, every time I pulled my pud that was a mortal sin, and I had to tell the priest how many times I did that since the last time I was in the booth. Or else I'd go to hell if I died. I mean, WTF? To be fair, I did think that most of the dogma was questionable at best way beforehand, but this, this made it personal. Then I started getting into the exogesis of the bible. One thing led to another, and here I am. LOL

Trans-substantiation. Once I gave it some thought I realized what a totally revolting prospect it is, literally eating the body of Christ.

Let’s see....
I was told Dogs can’t go to heaven because they don’t have souls.
I didn’t understand why my Penis needed to be altered if I was created in god’s perfect image.
I couldn’t see the reason for praying if god’s plan was already preordained.
I got upset when I learned about what the Catholic Church did to Copernicus for daring to suggest that the Earth orbited the Sun.
And of course the whole pedophile priest business.

The brutality of teachers, especially the priests and nuns. The contradictions within the dogma. The inability to question perceived inconsistencies without severe punishment. Et al. But mostly it was that none if it made sense and seemed to be based on tales that were similar in their cast of characters to the fairy stories we read. And I was only 8 years old! Stopped believing then, but kept on going through the motions for safety. Finally ‘came out’ at 13.

I knew about the same time that I learned that Santa wasn't real . 6/7 ish. The whole idea of this all knowing , invisible friend made no sense and neither did all the hypocrisy.

I knew at about 6yrs old or so that the all knowing, "good" biblical god made less sense than a santa with flying reindeer. Drowning every human on earth , talking fire bushes, adam /eve and 3 sons populate the ear

I remember being kicked out of catechism for questioning what we were being taught - so age about 10, but I seriously & conciously rejected all faiths on the basis of reason & science much later in life. It's all about control & patriarchy - why does god need money?

I've ogten thoguht tht if the money taken in at religious services was actually given to the poor we'd all be much better off.

I remember to this day the exact second it happened. Confirmation ceremony. 12 or 13 yo.
Leaving the church we had to kiss this guys ring. I just walked past him and my mother told me to go back and kiss his ring. I did. As soon as his knuckle hair touched my lips I knew. I went back to my mother and said I was never going to church again and she said, I understand, you don't have to. Thanks, Ma.

Like others, I was forced into it and like others, the older I got the further I turned. I have been an atheist for at least 35 years, but even as short as 10 years ago I attended church once in a while to see what they were saying now. SSDD. I am hooked on televangelist and have been for over 30 years. If I'm surfing the channels and one comes up, I'm trapped. Not because I agree. More like rubber necking the scene of an accident, but in the case of religious affairs, it's more akin to the scene of a crime.

The hypocrisy, remember eating meat on Friday was a sin. then they changed the rules so what happens to all the sinners? they get an Out of Hell Card?

It was a long and tortured road. It came down to no longer being able to stomach the hypocrisy.

I was young, probably about 12, when I started seeing the hippocracy evident in the church. I didn’t understand the requirement to go to confession when I was supposed to be praying/conversing directly with god. So I learned about different religions, absorbed the good stuff (ethics, social justice) and dispensed with the religion. I found it amusing that my mom quit attending church when I did, though she did continue volunteering on holidays for serving meals, etc.

I suppose as I got older and saw and understood the actions of priests and bishops

From as far back as I can remember, I always felt like everything I was hearing was a lie.
As soon as I was able to understand what was happening in mass every Sunday, and confession on Wednesday afternoons, I knew it was all bullshit.
Then I read the bible, and a whole bunch of other books.
As soon as I understood what an atheist was, I knew I was one.

Well reading certainly helped, specifically; The Pentagon Papers, The Warren commission Report, and The Gulag Archipeligo. No straight line of connection there except questioning everything.