Why do some people become atheists?

Answer 1

Many people start out with religious beliefs because they were brought up in a religious environment. However, when they begin to question those beliefs they may find inconsistencies and errors, which they can not reconcile with their own understanding of the universe. They begin to realise that there is no God and thus become atheists.

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For plenty of individual examples, see the related links at the bottom of the page.

AnswerThere are many different reasons. The first answer above gives a very common reason. Some people become angry at their religion after suffering a trauma - the loss of a loved one, for example. Many of these people, once they stop believing (for whatever reason) then look back and wonder how they ever did believe that stuff.

Religion basically depends on a circle of faith. If that circle is broken then the faith is fatally weakened.

Answer:

Strangely enough the Christian's own Bible explains this. In first Corinthians it states "When I was child, I talked like a child, i thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things." This seemingly refers to the childish belief in invisible friends and magic giving way to the adult's acceptance of the real and rational world without religious considerations.

Answer 2

• Atheism is the choice to not believe in any supernatural deity or supreme being. Atheists tend to be pragmatists with a rational, logical outlook on the world. Typically, they are raised in the religion of their culture but become jaded by what they see as the inconsistency and sometimes outright hypocrisy of their religion. Add to this a questioning , skeptical world view, and you have the makings of an atheist.
• Since religious training is normally dictated by one's parents, in one sense "everyone is born an atheist. Bertrand Russell authored a text, "Why I am not a Christian".
• Aldous Huxley, himself an atheist had this to say.

  "I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently (I) assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics, he is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do, or why his friends should not seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves....For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political."

  Thus wanting to have a philosophical basis for avoiding moral sanctions and/or accountability to a higher being indeed motivates some although they may not be as frank as Huxley was. This is why so many seem particularly keen to cast moral doubt upon certain actions of the God they don't believe in. If He exists and if He is a moral being then they may have to answer to Him. Thus behind much atheism is rebellion, although certainly not all. But as Rocket Scientist Joe Sabeney put it, they "look in the mirror and see their god," thus they will not be accountable to a higher power.

• In my experience, atheists are rationalists. They choose not to believe in a god because there is no theory of any sort that any alleged god exists. This is called the scientific method. To prove something you must experiment and come up with results that back up your hypothesis. Only when you get results do you have a theory, but if more studies are done that prove the theory wrong, the new idea is honored and we grow from it. Believing in a deity has done nothing to promote progress. It is used to justify wars and individual murders. It teaches one to be humble and admit weakness and to put your life in such God's hands instead of being proud, responsible, and personally empowered. There are exceptions, I hope, but these facts can't be denied. Try to prove a god exists and I will believe if you succeed. Otherwise, why not be an atheist?
• Because they have rejected God.
• Becoming an atheist is like a child getting over his fear of monsters under the bed. It just happens when you are mature enough to stand on your own mentally.
• Contrary to popular belief atheists do not reject God. When the realization comes that there is no God the entire social construct of God pops like a soap bubble and is gone. The thought image of "rejecting God" is one of a person shaking their fist at the deity saying its over between them and walking away. It is more like the child going to bed, never thinking of the imaginary monster again.

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Atheism is the rejection of gods on logical levels.

It is obvious that there are many contradictions between The Bible stories and the findings of science. Big Bang vs Creation. Evolution vs Creation. Science gets answers for origins of man and all species and the entire universe through empirical evidence and critical and rigorous logic. Gods and creations are accepted through the blind acceptance of the teachings of ancient texts and the indoctrinated threat maybe that people will be punished after they are already dead (eg in Hell) if they do not accept the teachings.

If you think the teachings of religious texts are illogical and correspond little or not at all with what you observe from the world. If you think gods definitely do not exist rather than exist, then you are an atheist. To 'become' an atheist, one realises the transition from believing in unempirically indoctrinated ideas of gods and creations to the embrace of logic and how it can extricate reliable, workable facts from the world itself about the world.

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On the other hand, atheism is the ultimate expression of ego, and validates the individual's self-cognizance. Even religious individuals reject strict determinism because it posits a certain irrelevance to Life. Although, as Gandhi reportedly said, "whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it," the ultimate value of living loses some meaning if there is an unalterable progression of events. And this is reflected by the part religion plays in conflicts and wars, where believers see their fate (and everyone else's) as subordinate to God's will.

Answer

In truth people do not 'become' Atheists; they rediscover Atheism. When they were in the womb or one minute out of the womb, they don't come with preprogrammed belief in anything. They were born Atheists, and as they grew they were indoctrinated with religious ideas.

Answer

In some cases, individuals from secular backgrounds develop religious beliefs themselves, either based on existing religions or on their own sense of conscious being (what seems right, wrong, or metaphysically possible).
They open their eyes, become rational, logical, reasonable, and stop believing in fairy-tales.

Answer 3

I am an atheist, and I am one, because I simply can not believe that there is a God, much as I would like to believe it. I don't think human life has any meaning, or that God is watching out for us. Also, I don't want to waste my life praying to some possibly existing God, just so I can go to Heaven, which is the reason many people do pray. I am also an atheist because I believe that people shouldn't do good things just because they want to go to Heaven, or because they think God is watching them. If I do good things, I want them to be for ME not for God, who might or might not exist. But of course, everyone has their own opinion on atheism, and this is just my biased account, and I hope I didn't offend anyone.
For many it's a slow process of disseminating the evidence from the superstition.

A gradual rising of realization and acceptance of our reality.

To put it simply.. "After finding the courage to look at the monster under the bed, the truth was finally revealed. It was just a story told to make us go to sleep".

Answer 4

:People do not choose to be athiests. Well, I didn't. I wanted to believe in God but so many things told me that he might be fictional like Santa Claus. It would be fantastic for there to be God and heaven etc. but all we have to prove His word are several books that contradict eachother. And, what if God doesn't exist and we wasted all of our lives fearing what happens after death, worrying about what wrong we did and praying to someone that doesn't exist?

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Consider the quote:

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

~ Albert Einstein

Atheists feel that they have the mental ability and common sense to escape being in Einstein's "poor way" and that they can do without the CCTV of god(s) peering over their shoulder.

:There are three positions that seem to be in effect to the question "Why do people choose to become atheists?"

The genetic theory

Studies of the brain and genetics indicate that there may be a physical and genetic connection between a persons ability to believe in god(s) and the structure of their minds. This was done by stimulating parts of the brain electromagneticaly. Some subjects developed religious visions or feelings, others did not. Atheists of this stripe just can't buy into a god or gods. (See Link below)

The "thinking and examination" position

Some atheists think their way through the questions around the questions of gods, souls and afterlives and come to the conclusion that these things do not exist. Others never thought the question was important enough to waste time considering as it in no way impacted their own world view. Negatively, some theists feel atheists are brain washed into their beliefs by a shadowy "Atheist Conspiracy" run by evil somebodies. Atheists of this stripe just can't buy into a god or gods.

The "outsiders" viewpoint

Theists do not credit either of the two previous options . They suggest that atheists have not been exposed to good arguments for the existence of god(s), are angry and petulant about some godly sorrow, are not truthful about their opinions, are showboating, or are just wrong. This is often summed up by the statement that atheists "Have a god shaped hole n their hearts"

Because every religon has flaws and mistakes that make them impossible to be correct. So why follow a religion if you know that its not right?

Answer 5

They lose faith or they don't see truth in the bible. An atheist probably could go and cross out beliefs in the bible with history and facts. That is what makes them a disbeliever of Christianity, therefor making them atheist. They simply do not believe in any religion.

Answer:

An atheist is person who does not believe that god or gods do not exist. Many people confuse this term with a misotheist (a god hater) who believes that a god does exist and for some reason hates she/he/it. Similarly an atheist is not just a Christian-god nonbeliever but has no belief an the existence of any gods from Ahriman to Zeus.

As to why a person toes not see any reason for the belief in a deity, these are many. He:

• might be from a family of atheists where non-belief is the seen as the natural state
• may have been born to a family of atheist sna dafter investigation found no supporting evidence for the supernatural
• have friends who discussed the issue and concluded as an outcome that the supernatural does not exist
• may have studied the Bible or other "holy" books and found them riddled with errors and mistakes
• been under-impressed with the lifestyle of believes and wanted to find a better way
• may not have the capacity to believe in anything beyond what can be proven

Answer 6

There are many reasons why people lack belief in gods; some personal tragedies (such as the death of a child) seem inexplicable in a universe controlled by a good god. Others are simply skeptical.

Answer 7

Some people point to the dictionary definition of atheist to explain this. The dictionary states that an atheist is a person that does not believe in god, They then says that the atheist is person who either never believed in god or stopped believing.

In actuality an atheist is a person that thinks and mulls matters over in his mind. He observes that no religions can produce proof of their deities except by circular logic and other fallacious arguments. He then observes that the world is terrible place for many people - war, pain, sickness, hunger, the death of loved ones - there is no relief given by any god. (In this case the thought that if god can help but doesn't he's a pretty miserable cuss, if he can't help he's not very powerful, if he doesn't care we can return the favour)

At the end of all of this an atheist concludes that science explains everything that he cares about and walks away from belief in a god, much like a child walks away from belief in the monster under the bed.

Answer 8

A person who finds the opinions and positions of a group in agreement with their own often becomes associated with that position. In the case of becoming an atheist a person might notice that there is no proof for the existence of a god or deity, no reason to believe anything beyond scientific positions or no reason to even worry about the validity of all supernatural arguments.

Answer 9

Most Atheists would argue that it is not about what they want, but what they can find evidence to support. If they cannot believe, they will inexorably become atheists. However, in irreligious countries - usually communist and former communist countries, a number of people choose to profess Atheism publicly out of fear of persecution or unequal treatment should they be openly religious.

Answer 10

Because people see how crazy it sounds to believe in a grandiose schizophrenic who thought he was his own father. Just let that sink in.