How a religious or normal person who believes in God can become atheist?

Question

I mean.. the atheists were religious or belong to a religion.. they used to believe in God but what made to you not to believe in a God anymore? when it happened to you, you wished a God.. you were so strong there is no god? I mean you prayed so much and he never made your miracle and you are dissapoint for it?

Answer 1

It was a process that took a few years.

Reading the bible helped a lot though, because it is just so ridiculous there is no way any of it could true.

Took a couple psychology and philosophy classes that helped me understand a lot as well.  Read some religion books and some books by Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.

I kind of outgrew religion, but it took a few years to get over the ridiculous concept of a god

Answer 2

I realized that belief was not enough. Without evidence, belief is pointless.

Answer 3

Some people got tired of the fundies hijacking the religion to promote hate and bigotry. More are upset with mainstream christians not standing up to the fundies, and remaining silent. Some were dissapointed after deaths of friends or family members.  

Answer 4

Not all Atheists were raised in a religious household.

Not all Atheists were religious at some or any point in time.

Answer 5

well ithink the future is what's important and that the pepolle are always thinking about progress and  it is best  

Answer 6

I was always an atheist...I was never made to believe in "god"...its just seems insane to believe in something that clearly is not there!!  simple as that!

Answer 7

Neither of my parents were religious, so I was simply never exposed to it until college, and even then not really until I met my husband to be...

...I don't know that I really have anything against it, it's just somebody else's thing, not mine...seems like a lot of people get really bad obsessions about it though, from hanging about this place...doesn't look to healthy for those lads...I think they're sort of lonely because they try so hard to get other people on board, but they use the most atrocious methods to promote it...

Answer 8

A "normal person" becomes an atheist after eating from the tree of knowledge.

Answer 9

I really want to answer your question but I can't get over the fact that you think people are either religious/normal or atheists

Answer 10

I started studying historical evidence about Christianity. I wanted to know the truth.

I found it and now I'm an atheist.

Answer 11

Actually most of us became atheists from actually reading the holey babble you should try it some time . Don't just take someones word for it start on page one and read it . About half way through you will say " who wrote this c**p Alfred Hitchcock or Edgar Allen Poe ? "

I never did accept that garbage they shoved at me and drove everyone nuts because they couldn't convince me . I started reading at 4 . My mother taught me phonics and let me alone By the time I was 9 or 10 I have read so many books like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as well as treasure Island and many others I learned what fiction was as well as real history . I read books on mythology and ancient history and science and the more I read the more sure I became I was right . I am now 50 and have been a speed reader with over 95% comprehension since 9th grade so figure out how many books I have read .

Answer 12

I realized that belief alone does not make something true.

To say you know something requires that you are able to show facts about it.

The facts are direct testable empirical evidence that can be repeated for any observer no matter what they believe they should agree that what is being observed is real.

But religion asks people to have faith trust hope that something is true and it does not provide very convincing evidence.

What’s worse is that religions threaten those that doubt by implying that if you fail to believe its teachings are true then you will be punished forever.

But most religions also claim that you will not be able to know it is real until you first believe that it is true.

This just does not make sense.

For example I tell you have to believe me when I say that this box contains x.

You say well let me look in the box, but instead I hand you a book and where several people claim that the box does contain x and all you have to do is trust that it does and then you will know that the truth about what the box contains.

But also it says how if you do not believe absolutely if you say that you doubt  that the box contains x then you will suffer for ever and ever and you will never be able to go back.

You say ok fine I believe it is true that the box contains x now let me see what’s inside.

First you have to really believe it and hope really hard talk to yourself over and over saying that you believe the box contains x and ask to see x

Fine you say and you do all of that and you say now let me see what is in the box.

Two things tend to happen here.

I open the box and you believe see x and this reinforces you belief and trust that the book everything I said was true about the box and x.

Or, as in my case, you open the box and say well the fact is there is no x and no evidence for x I thought you said if I believed it there would be x in the box?

You never really believed, you did not trust it keep having faith and do not doubt that x is really there keeping trying until you see x.

But the facts, and the lack of evidence.

Thats y, y does not want you to see x.

Then at some point I said, you know what this is a total scam.

What a fool I was to think that believing something and trusting the book about other people and their beliefs would make something real and a fact.

To think that I thought believing x meant I could also say that I know x is true.

That was really stupid of me.

We can not know if x is real, and it definitely is not proved by believing it is in the box.

So why simply believe something you can not claim to know?

Get it now.

I am not normal because I can do not trust that something is true simply because I believe it is true.

From here on out I need facts, evidence, or at least very good arguments before I accept that it is possible and even then I am not going to simply believe it is true no matter what.

I will just say well as far as I can tell based on the information that sounds like the best answer.

I was disapointed but not in god or religion, rather in myselfs for thinking that believing something makes it true when this is not how reality works.

Answer 13

No I didn't.

Answer 14

"religious or normal person"?  LOL I'm not even going to bother with your obtuseness.....2 pts..

Answer 15

I read the Bible critically, many other events led to my dropping of Christianity, but reading the Bible was the main one.

Answer 16

They always come out at night.

Answer 17

No, most Atheists became Atheists because we researched on Religion.

We looked at religion at both ways. We saw that religion is not only hypocritical, but fragile. It collapsed under the lightest of intellectual interrogation.

Many Atheists became Atheists because they read their Bible properly and unbiasedly. They do not see it as a bad book, nor praise it. It was only later did they critically point out the contradictions and flaws.

Answer 18

My pastor asked me about my relationship with Jesus, and I lied to give the answer I was supposed to, then I reflected on my answer, felt silly, and started thinking for myself for the first time in my life...

Answer 19

I was raised in a very religious family, and was religious myself until college. I tried and tried to pray and understand and feel different when I was younger, but I was determined not to "lie" to myself about hearing god or jesus talk to me. It never made sense, any of it. I read the bible for answers but became more confused because it was illogical. God was a murderer but was kind? He loved people but sent them to h**l? After a while my parent's only answer to my questions was that I couldn't understand god's logic. How convenient. After years of stress and fear I got to college and took a class on world religion, thus ending my faith completely. There are thousands of religions, picking one would be impossible for one, not to mention you would have to pick based on a LOGICAL system. I dropped christianity but held on to the idea of god until I accepted that I was just afraid of death without afterlife. Now I understand my entire religious journey was based out of fear, and accepting that has been one of the hardest things ever, but now I can live a life without fear or delusion.

Answer 20

Jesus will answer your question in Mark 4.3-8 "Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirty fold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

From verse 3-7 were the kind of people who have heard, love, enjoy and experience the goodness of God. These people most of them turn to be an atheist because of their experience.  They love the world than the Word of God. Verse 8 is the one who step out in his faith and believed and received the Word of God in his heart and it become his foundation.  Keep in mind "The Word of God is Jesus Christ".  These are the four kinds of people in the sight of man but in the sight of God there are only two kind of people the believers and non-believers.  

Some of them they were not become a believer in the first place.  Like what I said before, they wanna be like Christian and follow what Christian do but they never cross the line to received and believed who Jesus is in their life.