For atheists: why did you become atheist?

I, personally, am atheist, and officially became atheist about this time last year. I discovered that I had no faith whatsoever. I never truly was Christian; I never really did believe in God.
So, I'm just curious: all you atheists, what made you...

convert?

I don't mind non-atheists posting anything, so long as your civil.

I grew up in a very religious household...daily prayers, church every week (sometimes multiple times a week), religious indoctrination classes, religious school...you name it. Yet the doubts nagged me constantly. At some point, I decided I would actually just read the whole Bible, thinking maybe it would all then make sense. To my dismay, reading the whole Bible caused me to have even more doubts like never before. So I read it again, figuring I must have just not really got it the first time. No difference.

So I began reading every book I could get my hands on written by Christian apologists, and discovered their arguments to be pathetic and weak. At this point, I was open to other ideas, so I began to explore the possibility that I had been lied to all my life. It was very painful, but after years of thought and research, I concluded that not only was my religion bunk, but so was the very idea of a creator god.

So now I'm an atheist. I'm still open to the possibility of a god, but the evidence would have to be extraordinary and arguments rock solid. I think if there were any such evidence or arguments, I would have run across them by now.

I think I am atheist, but im not sure... anytime someone says god or anything like that, its just like uhm, okay? hes not even real! so yeah... im trying to believe that god and everything is real, I even went to church for awhile, but, it did nothing.

dont believe in god and never have done..simple as really

I dont belive in god or devil

I havent been to church since I was 7. after we didnt go anymore, my parents aways said they were and when I was in 6th grade I tried to understand the bible and then I tried other religions, but they were all teh same basicallly. I believe in the theroy og the Big Bang than God. So since I was in 7th grade I have been Athiest im 18 now

When I tried to think objectively about the existence of God it just didn't make sense to me.

Later I considered the position of Pascal's wager which is basically a cost benefit analysis of believing in God. The problem I had with Pascal's wager is that truth should stand on its own. If a proposition relies on the threat of punishment and/or the promise of rewards in order to be accepted than this makes it less likely to be true in the first place. Anyone who accepts a premise as true based on promises or threats is an intellectual coward and any god that would resort to them doesn't deserve to be worshiped.

Haha well I never have converted. I've always been atheist, and probably always will be...

But it wasn't until about 2-3 years ago that I actually started calling myself an atheist.

And I did it just to piss my parents off cause they fought since the day I was born what my religion should be.
So I told them that I was atheist, but eventually I looked it up like really in depth and talked with other atheists, and it was just like HEY I actually agree with everything being said and thats how I look at things...
Soo...

I don't like the label atheist. It's too simple and suggests that I must absolutely believe that nothing exists. I'm not an Agnostic either.

Like many, I was brought up as a Christian, then around 12-13 slowly drifted away from it, to absolutely hating religion by about age 15-16. The ideas and beliefs that many Christians hold did not go to well with my beliefs and ideals. Seeing so many atrocities in the name of religion I guess sealed the deal. The bible with its many inconsistencies, or Christians who tend to only pick what they want to believe from the bible, and forget about the rest, the hypocrisy of many Christians I both knew personally and through the media, the hatred from many Christian groups, ...the list is endless.

I know many good Christians, however, I just felt the bad overshadowed the good as far as religion goes.

Because reality is better than fantasy.

I was raised catholic (was even an altar boy), but from a very young age, I was skeptical about the existence of god. I can remember always thinking, 'can this really be true?'. When I got older, I still went to church occasionally out of a sense of tradition and also because my wife and kids believed (they still do). But finally, I couldn't go one pretending. I am not someone who can simply believe in something without one shred of evidence.

ok I came from a pure catholic family. I was an alter boy I got confirmed and everything. I was brought up in catholic school and was very sheltered. then I went to a catholic high school and got a brain. it makes no sense and even religion people say sometimes it makes no sense so I came up with my own theory. I think that christianity and other religions were made up so people can hve hope and so principles can be founded and people would be scared of them to believe in them. so there for I became an atheist