How did you become a free thinker/atheist?

Question

I was just if you could share the details of your moral code. Was there any event that triggered it? Were you a believer before?

So basically my question is:

When?

How?

Why?

are you free of god fear?

(I am a free thinker myself.)

Answer 1

When the things I learned in church and school began to conflict with what I was experiencing in the "real" world, I began to question what  I'd always assumed was "true".  That 'truth" didn't hold up outside of  church and school.  

I think one triggering event was noticing that the stated beliefs of many people didn't match up with their operational beliefs.  In simple terms, people didn't walk their talk.  

While I was raised in a religious family, my mother used to encourage me to think for myself.  I don't think she realized exactly what she was saying, or that I would take it all to heart and leave the church.  But, I thank her for that advice.  It was the best thing she ever said to me.

No, I don't have any god fear feelings.  And, I haven't had such feelings in over 40 years.

Answer 2

I was 13yrs old, in Rome to go to Mass given by the Pope when I started to question. I was repulsed by the wealth and squander - relative to world poverty. I then seriously looked into the political history of Christianity, which put me off religion. Still as a teenager, I met a friend/mentor much older than me who was communist. She was an atheist, but by her actions and applied philosophies was more 'Christian' than anyone I'd met before. I learned that the difference between humans and creatures was compassion and the conscious, active drive to help my neighbor. In my book being part of the human species does not automatically let you join the 'race', regardless of how many 'Hail Mary's' you say. 30 years on, (still reading and questioning) I'm happy to be worm food when my life stops. We are all a happy (for us) accident of chemistry.

Answer 3

I like the whole "free thinker/atheist" garbage. Atheism does [not] have the monopoly on free thought and the capacity to employ any sense of intellectuality; much to the contrary, atheism closes itself off at the same point as theism, just in the other direction. A theist has the opportunity to think freely, yet always manages to return to God as the foundation of everything, whereas the atheist thinks freely and arrives at the conclusion that such pondered truths are merely coherent in the godless universe.

Know, though, that we do not experience true freedom, wherein we are never bound to something. As human beings, creatures of choice, we are always and forever going to be slaves or bound to something. If we deny one thing, we become bound to the opposite and this extends to all facets of life.  

Answer 4

I was born into a Christian family and took the beliefs on as my own.  When I was older my best friend came out to me as g*y.  My parents banned him from the house.  They tried to keep me from seeing him.  The church wouldn't let him volunteer to help set up folding chairs for youth group when he came out as a struggling g*y person.  My g*y friend didn't want to be g*y.  He tried to go to the pastor for support.  But the pastor didn't want anything to do with him.  He left the church although he still believes in God and considers himself a Christian.  I don't.  I don't want to call myself by the same name as such hateful people.

The church failed my other friend when she was raped.  They said she was in the wrong place at the wrong time (at a bar) and that's what happens to sinful girls.  She was a virgin and just spending time with her two old friends who put something in her drink and raped her.  She tried to commit suicide so the church excommunicated her.  She was the pastor's daughter.  There was no love and no support.   This was another church.  The hatred and judgement is pervasive.   I've seen enough.  

I'm not an atheist, but in my young adulthood I've learned to steer clear of the church.  I now consider myself an agnostic. Yes, I am free of god fear.  If there is a god, why should I fear it?  Fear is never a good reason to obey.

Answer 5

I never at any point in my life beleived in a deity I learned my morals from those around me so:

When? When I was born

How? I resolved to take the route that made most sense to me

Why? Atheism made sense to me

Answer 6

i'm not exactly an athiest, but religion has never really made any sense to me. how can people so freely accept something that makes practically no sense? goes against all logic and explanation and has no tangible evidence of its validity? why do they follow it so blindly and cover their ears to logic?  

Answer 7

no, you cannot be a free thinker because when you die, where will you go........... h**l or heaven

and you must know'' free thinker bad for life''

you must depend to your own religion.

Answer 8

You need not be an atheist to be a free thinker.

When, where and how? I don't know...it is something that has taken my lifetime to recognize...strength to acknowledge and courage to pursue. There wasn't an "event" that suddenly woke me to possibility.

You simply have to be willing to question...everything. To be willing to listen quietly to another, to consider all opinions, to not fear to make outrageous associations in pursuit of knowledge, to wonder, muse, daydream, seek, learn....that is a free thinker.

Answer 9

for two years i was in a mode of depression. for no reason.

every little thing ticked me off. i even had help. doctors, friends psychiatrists, nothing helped. i soon found out it was because my problems with love, school, and my relationship with my parents.

i always then prayed to god. everyday. 5 times like a muslim should.

i waited 2 years.

NOTHING ******* HAPPENED.

where is this "God" you speak of?

in man's imagination!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

and plus, i am an honest man. i have not done anything wrong in my life that i ca remember. i regret nothing in my life

except dedicating the beginning of it to some loser in the sky.

Answer 10

i agree, kinda a weird question but:

8th grade. I was a hardcore close-minded Christian, but philosopher at heart. I just kinda realized that non of us know anything. the only thing we really know, is that we don't know anything. that began me reading a lot of different books about other religions. after all of it was over, I didn't believe in any of them. I am a deist now, and it was hard to forget a lot of stuff I had been tought. it was harder to lie to myself. anyway the answer is easy to your question. free thinking starts at humility. start from scratch. more listening less talking, know what I mean?