Did u choose 2 be atheist?

Question

I'm a christian but find everything about christianity except the part about jesus which has been imprinted in my beliefs hard 2 believe and I'm not trying 2 convert solely becuz i wld rather believe in jesus and go 2 heaven than not believe and spend an eternity in h**l,

so to u atheists how did u decide or were u raised that way?

and 2 everyone else what do u think of atheists

Answer 1

I'm not religious myself but I'm no atheist either. Atheists believe that they are extremely "open-minded" even though they are the complete opposite.

Denounce religion is all you want, no one's having any beef with the atheists.

Answer 2

I read the bible. That's why.  

Answer 3

Raised Catholic.  Gave it some thought around the age of 12 and decided it was all highly speculative.  Gave it some more thought around the age of 16 and decided I didn't believe it.  Didn't think much about it for the next almost 20 years, then read the Bible and realized it was nonsense.

So it wasn't a choice as such.  More like a realization.

Keep thinking about it.  Make sure that whatever you believe, you can support your beliefs -- don't believe in anything "just in case it's true."  (Would any deity be fooled by that silly hedging of bets? Really?)

Whatever you decide, good luck.

Answer 4

Once I started reading, it seemed pretty obvious to me that religion was a lot of nonsense.  

Answer 5

I was raised as a Christian. Fortunately for me my brain was nimble enough to see religion for what it really is and to see that there has never been the slightest evidence to support the alleged existence of any of the thousands of gods that humans have invented.

Answer 6

I'm not atheist, I'm Agnostic. Consider it another alternative to either extreme, more of a gray area (I hate extremes. Neither are completely right).

I live on a more spiritual level, some might even compare it to traits of Buddhism, as I believe in karma and such. I don't believe in the Christian's view of what God is entirely, I choose to say that rather there were higher forces at work in the beginning of it and that there are alternate plains of existance (as I'm a believer in the paranormal also).

I was raised Maronite Catholic as a child, but never did I believe any of it at face value. To me, the Bible is comparable to the writings of modern Pop Culture. These were stories and fables written by men of the day with their limited understandings of the world as a whole. They were the journalists of their day.

Christians believe in Creation. Atheists believe in Evolution.

I believe in the Creation of Evolution. I believe that everything had to start somewhere from something beyond human understanding and was meant to evolve on the path that it did. The Science of Evolution is the human ability to put things into a logical perspective for our easy understanding.

Interestingly, I've a friend who is Atheist and he gets a lot of heat from people. But if they would just shut up for a minute and listen to WHAT he's saying and not HOW he's saying it... they'd see he's a perfectly normal and nice person with an interesting theory of things.

Basically, I'm saying, regardless of your belief structure, it's most important to go through life happy and to treat others with dignity and respect. Don't beat yourself up thinking about it. It is what it is. Do what makes you happy and comfortable with yourself. If others don't like... tough.

Answer 7

I believed in God till about the age of 12 and thats when i started to question it. By the time I was about 15, I realised I no longer believed and thats when I became Atheist.

Answer 8

As much as I "chose" to be straight.

Bad choice of metaphor knowing the fundies -.-

Answer 9

I chose to be an atheist.  I determined that belief in god was unnecessary for me to lead a happy and fulfilling life.  Once I came to that conclusion, the evidence supporting God's existence appeared woefully lacking.  

That's not to say that Jesus didn't have some good ideas that people would be better off by paying attention to.  You just don't have to believe in God, and certainly not consider the Bible to be historically accurate, in order to grasp the moral lessons that Jesus was attempting to convey.  He just had to put things in terms that people in his day would be compelled to listen to (i.e., that he spoke on behalf of God).

Answer 10

You should read up on evolutionary biology. That might help you understand that humanity doesn't need a deity.

I chose to be an atheist because of that and more. I don't believe in h**l, therefore I do not fear going there.

Answer 11

It wasn't a choice in the way I said "Hey! I think I'll be an atheist!" It was more a realization that there was no reason to believe in the existence of any god or gods.

Answer 12

I was raised in a moderately believing household.  It's a surprisingly tough question, "did I choose to be an atheist?".  For me, that's like "did you choose to believe reality?".  At one level yes it is a choice.  I choose the books the read and the evidence to look at.  On another level, once the evidence (or lack thereof) is there, the conclusion follows from the evidence and is not really choice.  

I decided from reading and looking at the universe.  I just don't see the evidence so far supporting the idea of a deity.  Every stringent test I've seen fails.  When the tests fail we get excuses.  I think that a god should not require excuses.

Answer 13

It took me 30 years before I felt ok about having a different opinion than I was raised with.  When I let go of the fear that had been programmed in me, I realized that there was nothing to be afraid of.  Nothing changes about life by not believing in a God....except you can lose the fear and irrationality associated with it.

Welcome to the beginning of a new journey!  Be prepared to learn how to think critically and listen to others tell you you are wrong.

Answer 14

i was raised christian.

i was put in a christian school from age 5 to age 17.

i came out agnostic.

Answer 15

I chose.  I didn't like the idea at first, but I came round to it.

Answer 16

For some it is a choice, but for some it isn't. I was raised Christian. I decided to learn more about science and atheism so that I could better debate non-Christians. I thought it would strengthen my beliefs, but the more I learned the more I realized how much more sense non-religion made to me. I was sitting on my bed one day when I suddenly came to the realization that I just didn't believe in religion anymore.

Answer 17

i found myself heading in that direction at an early age, i was christened Church of England & went to church until i was ten. i enjoyed sunday school but never got the church sermons. the thing that got me most was the vanity of the older church goers, as in I'm more godly than you & was put out that these people could be so self centred & spiteful with each other. i found that i lacked it in me to believe in a church & a god who could sanction such behaviour & that feeling has grown over the years. i do however believe in jesus but not as the sun of god, would god really as i see it, defile a woman & then have the nerve to tell her what to call the child, that's pushing the boundaries a bit & creating the wrong image. i see jesus as a magician with a lot of tricks up his sleeve & the answer to a lot of hopes & dreams. to me all you have at the end of the day is your conscience & your ability to do the right thing by others. the ability to love & care for all others comes from inside a person & not from religion & should not need to be forced out by eternal damnation & hellfire it should be given freely without reward

so yes i chose

Answer 18

You imply Pascal's Wager is valid but it's not.  Believing in Jesus might actually be the thing that keeps you out of heaven.  There is no empirical evidence for any deities.

Answer 19

Raised. One of a very small percent.

Answer 20

Having been raised a Christian I was naturally interested in religion. Once I began to heavily study religion I began to notice too many contradictions and faulty messages to believe that there is a God.

Answer 21

I had no choice in the matter...  I literally could not believe anymore.

Its not really a matter of choice.  I can't choose to believe in gods- I can either do it or not do it.  Its not a conscious thing (this is also something I learned when TRYING to believe in gods).

Answer 22

I was raised christian, and to be honest I decided to become atheist after reading the bible(took me a year)

Answer 23

I did choose to be an atheist. It made more sense that the universe didn't need or have a god.

Answer 24

No, I didn't, in fact, I fought very hard to keep my faith.