A question for the atheists amongst us.

[LetThereBeRock]

Have you always been an atheist? If not how did you become one?

I've no agenda in asking as I'm in the 'pretty much atheist' category myself.

When I was a child I was taken to church with my gran and accepted what I was told by grown ups about religion, as children do.

When I got old enough to question things in my own mind, I decided that religion didn't make sense to me personally so I would consider myself an athiest now.

Don't think it's any more complicated than that for me really.

I think deep down I've always been a doubter.

I did have a period of about a year when I really wanted to believe in God and went to church every week (on my own) but I soon got fed up.

Funnily enough I was asked this very question last week by a nice Mormon chap who refused to leave me alone and I had to be quite rude to him in the end

Parents were not believers so I never really had to go against anything iykwim

Always been one. All the religious hocus pocus just seemed so obviously silly. I remember sitting through church parade as a Brownie being baffled as to why everyone was in a big cold building pretending there was a big man with a beard in the sky while a small man in a dress droned on and on talking a lot of arrant nonsense.

Have always been one. I remember as a young child wondering how others had become so 'brainwashed' as to believe in something that so patently was not true.

I was raised one but I did flirt with the idea a few years ago and started attending church after going to a friends baptism.

I really grew to love the people and the family feel to it - I was very welcomed as were my children. My dd loved the clubs and the many youth activities they did and I felt she was mixing with good children so it ended up being more about what the children were getting out of it.

I never really 'felt' it myself and the kicker was when my daughter refused to belive how rainbows were made - God did them was all she would repeat.

I was raised CofS, went to Sunday School and Bible Class, taught Sunday School as a teenager and joined the Church at 16. However, when I left home for university at 17, I didn't seek out a Church, and I guess it all just simply faded away.

I had very idealistic notions about Christianity as a teen and the Church failed to live up to them.

I was brought up a catholic in Northern Ireland.

Since my early teens I had a deep suspicion it was a total crock of shite and rebelled against it more and more over the years to the point (now) where, after years of thought, I am 100% atheist.

My family were regulars at a baptist church when I was little, so I got sent to sunday school and church-linked Brownies, so lots of prayers and bible stories and stuff about how you should be kind to others etc.

By the age of about seven it seemed pretty clear to me that the stories were just nice stories, and there was no proof at all that god actually existed. The nice ladies at sunday school weren't terribly good at answering questions to my satisfaction....

Also a lot of the girls who came from the most earnestly Christian families, and who were always first with their hands up to say prayers and act out bible stories, were the nastiest, meanest, bitchiest ones when their parents weren't looking, which made me a little sceptical about Christian values...

I was about 14 or 15 and starting learning about evolution/DNA/Darwin and suddenly it made a lot more sense than the huge number of religions all having their own beliefs and how they were prepared to wage war and kill for them.

I don't remember religiong, or the lack of it, being a part of my childhood. My parents are not religious, but I do not remember being told that it wasn't true. We never went to church, at some point I just decided for myself.

It's just never been a question for me. No decision, this is just the way things are. I've never doubted, never thought that I might be wrong.

As a teenager I had a very religious boyfriend, he was hoping I would convert, but it was just never going to happen.

Yup. Told my mother that people did not come back to life and there wasn't a God one day after Sunday school when I was three.

I've never believed. I went through a stage, aged about 10, where I tried to believe. It didn't work. I always liked the message but the faith thing has always met with a blank in my brain.

I went to a CofE primary for a while and then a Scottish primary, so Church of Scotland - we had weekly religious assemblies. For a while we had the local Catholic priest because the minister was ill. That was quite exotic.

My parents are atheists but genuinely didn't push it on me- they always said 'it's one of the things you make up your own mind about'.

It's just never been an option for me. I get quite pissed off when I read things about atheists being this, that, the next thing. Arrogant, materialistic, lacking in wonder, easily satisfied by glib scientific answers. It doesn't bear any resemblance to atheism for me. It's a non-issue in my life.

Always been an atheist. My mum wrote a note to the Brown Owl to excuse me from church parade on the grounds that I didn't believe in god.

I had the tiniest wobble in early teenage when I wrote a note in class to my friend saying, 'what if He exists?'. She sent it back with the 'He' underlined and pointed out the inherent sexism in organised religion and that pretty much settled it for me

For me, I was never christened. We didn't really do any religous studies at school that I can remember. I suppose I am fairly ignorant about most of it. I just feel uncomfortable in a church too. I would not like to be married in a church. I see marriage as a commitment to your partner and nothing to do with religion.

My DD is not going to be christened against the other side of the families wishes. They are not religious but it is a "nice" thing to do. Which is hypocritical.

I have nothing against those who have a faith. I think if they find it comforting then great.

There is also a bad side to do with religion though....it seems to have caused a lot of wars over the years.

Always been one, the more I learned about religion the more I wanted to run the other way.

Can't remember a time when I ever believed. My parents sent me to rainbows, brownies, guides etc, went to a church playgroup and holiday clubs but were not believers themselves. It just never 'got it', it never made sense and I always felt like I was on the outside looking in at all the religious activities. I went to all the church parades etc but it just seemed a bit silly to me at the time.

When I was thirteen I had a period of major questioning, trying to decide who and what I was and what I believed. I read the whole bible, tried praying and did a lot of thinking but it still didnt make sense to me. Once I started learning about the history of religion it seemed to make even less sense.

Agree with the poster who said mentioned about the 'He'. My mum was a strong believer in equality and was very much a feminist and the thought of an omnipotent, omnipresent male deity did not go down too well.

I was brought up a Catholic, went to church every week, Catholic primary school, took First Holy Communion etc and never really thought about it much. I became a bit more religious as a teen including being confirmed. But in my year out I went to China, got total culture shock and was miserable, and found out that the faith I had was no support at all. And that was it really. Half of my family are really quite religious (in that their faith is very important to them) - my sister is a vicar and BIL is in training for ordination.

My parents were catholic and Dh is christian, DDs were christened - I only became very disillusioned when Dd1 said to me 'Mum, standing in the garage doesn't make you a car, going to church doesn't make you a christian' or something to that effect. We'd gone to Church for years, but never really believed iykwim.

I think there might be some higher power out there, but dislike any organised religion. DD might be the cause of this too 'Mum, what sort of people live their life cuz a book says so?' after telling her people could believe what they liked and it wasn't our place to judge, 2 days later she waltzed downstairs with a suitcase and informed me she was off to look for Hogwarts, and would I mind pointing her towards Scotland.

DH was less than impressed :o. Don't think Ive ever believed, except when it was convenient and I needed something. Like a cancer cure iykwim. Miracles and the like.