The Real Reasons Why People Become Atheists

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX4I_WaxDoU

I think he's describing the different things that nudge people towards or away from religion, and he's right that the religious display of the surrounding people is the strongest predictor we know of.

^That, and if you are experiencing a lot of trauma, such as living in a war zone, where life is uncertain from day to day.

Read the diary of psychiatrist Victor Frankl (founder of logotherapy) - he says the exact opposite. His experience of trauma in a concentration camp, and living in a war zone made him (and other prisoners) adjust to the horrible conditions and to cope they drew on their belief in god which made them more religious. Indeed Jews have experienced of millenia of trauma across multiple generations and all that did was to draw them closer to their god Yawheh.

My experiences with various forms of abuse played some role in my atheism. It made the idea of the loving, omnipotent, omnipresent, etc. God I grew up with impossible. The idea of a deity observing unspeakable suffering and doing nothing about it is, in my mind, disturbing on a horror movie level. Nah, it’s worse. Believers in my former faith often try not to think about that stuff and even employ thought-stopping techniques when uncomfortable thoughts arise. After experiencing what I experienced, I couldn’t successfully do that.

I always had doubts. Skepticism seems to be a part of my personality. I first questioned the existence of God as a 5 or 6 year old even though I could clearly picture him in my mind just as I could envision Gandalf or my imaginary friends. However, the existence of suffering (and apparent God-approved injustice in the Bible) allowed me to explore my beliefs, the Bible, science, critical thought, etc. because I knew that, whether God was real or not, I didn’t want to worship him. I no longer cared about trying to preserve my faith. He wasn’t (and isn’t) worthy of my worship. Obviously, other deities could exist with more limited powers/abilities, but I won’t believe in anything without sufficient evidence. I should also state that I have always been surrounded by devout believers, but being autistic and timid, I never experienced the social benefits of being a part of a religious community. As a matter of fact, I always found it extraordinarily unpleasant - the close-mindedness and various forms of bigotry went against my personal moral code.

If I’m wrong and am greeted by Peter at the pearly gates upon my death, I’ll give him a message to relay to God (“f**k you”) and take the elevator down to the other place. All the fun stuff happens in Hell anyway.

I've been a skeptic since childhood but I have over the years been in and out of church. But I have also prayed in hindu temples, buddhist monastary and even muslim mosques. I've also tried meditation. to be honest I am not sure what I was doing, it just my curiosity to see if I would experience god reaching out to me. As with everything I keep an open mind. but in my current life I am not invested in god, but ask me again tomorrow and I might change my mind.

There was a time when I noticed that I experienced benefits from prayer, but I eventually realized that I experienced the same benefits from meditation, journaling, taking hikes in nature, listening to music that was meaningful to me, etc. I concluded that it wasn’t God soothing me but my own mind. It was an empowering realization after being raised with all that “we’re worthless sinners” nonsense.

Sure, I’ll change my stance on God if I’m presented with sufficient evidence but that doesn’t mean I’d worship him, her, or it.

Faith in itself has immense benefits in terms of helping cope with the trials and tribulations of life and recover from illness. I think this is why Jesus said there is no point being "lukewarm" about following god. Being lukewarm means you won't benefit from god's benevolence.

Placebos certainly can be beneficial.

With that being said, benefits depend on the person. I did not experience many benefits as a believer even when I was putting all my energy into my faith and wasn’t trying to be lukewarm at all. I’m happier and healthier doing my own thing and finding my own meaning in life. I’ve always had a lot of issues with the Bible, though, including various things that Jesus himself is believed to have said.

God doesn’t seem particularly benevolent to me. In addition to not putting an end to suffering, having read the Bible several times, I tend to agree with Richard Dawkins:

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

Yeah, Jesus is much less of an as*hole, but he’s far from being above reproach.

Although I was raised Catholic, no one in my family was particularly religious and we only went to church as a cultural tradition because it was what one did, so there wasn't a strong faith being forced on me that caused me to rebel. I didn't need to rebel, I just couldn't find god plausible. I stopped believing when I was about 12 or 13, and it was very simple for me: there just didn't seem to be any reason to believe all this supernatural nonsense. I don't believe in anything supernatural, not just god. And I'm not agnostic, I am certain that it's not real.

Yeah I get that. God of the old testament certainly wasn't "woke".

I recall trying to debate a nun in my catholic school back in the 1970s about the tree of knowledge in genesis. Something like "if god punished Adam for seeking knowledge then why are we at school Sister?"
She initially was surprised by my question but eventually responded "look, don't try and overthink scripture, mankind was wicked so don't dwell on the bad things that happened to him in the past" - "Jesus said “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it" Certainly don't judge god.

She then asked me to focus on the commandments and the teachings of Jesus. I guess she's correct, we need to use our brains and filter out all the bad things and just follow some simple commands and our lives will be better for it.

ONE atheist told me that the rampant hypocrisy among church members not only drove him away, but gave him no reason to believe in God, angels, souls, or disembodied spirits.

I don't know how prevalent this is among atheists, but it is the one reason that seems to make the most sense.

One reason could be because preachers rely so heavily on traditional values and gender roles and they say things against members of the LGBTQ community.

It’s concerning when believers tell you to just focus on the nice bits and to not “overthink scripture,” “judge God,” or whatever else. It’s a form of thought-stopping. We are free to research, analyze, and critique to whatever extent feels appropriate to us. Doing so is important if we want to make progress in society as far as morality and ethics are concerned or if we want to leave an abusive religion behind. Nothing should be above scrutiny.


I prefer to avoid the Bible altogether as a source of moral instruction although it’s interesting from textual, historical, and literary standpoints. Obviously, some people will think differently, but many of the commandments and Jesus’ own, supposed teachings are problematic in some way. You don’t need a holy book to be a good person or to have a good life. IMO, there are more useful resources out there if one genuinely wants insight on how to make good choices. We have made some progress in terms of ethics over the centuries and millennia. However, I will say that the Bible can be a useful starting point for philosophical conversations/debates centered on ethics, but I think of it as a starting point rather than a destination.

My parents grew up in religious households. My dad in a Mormon house, my mum in a Protestant. Both left their respective religions.

There was a lot of pressure on my dad to marry a Mormon woman, one woman in particular in fact. He refused and married my mother instead. This led to him being disowned by most of the family.

Despite growing up in an atheist household, I was sent to a highly religious school (because it had a good reputation at the time). So I'd go to school and be told that atheists were foolish and evil, but then I'd go home and be told Christians were morons. Conflicted would be an understatement. The school got to me with their words about how questioning religion makes me a bad person. I didn't want to be a bad person, so I pushed any doubts I had way down in my mind. Yet I also knew that my parents weren't bad people.

When I was twelve, I decided to go off on my own and research different belief systems to see if I could reach my own conclusion. That's when I became an atheist. Although I am partial to Simulation theory. I could find a game developer type God plausible, one who has some of the settings set to random and isn't actively monitoring the simulation but instead just allows it to play out. There are weird almost glitches in the Universe sometimes. No God seems the most likely explanation to me though. Mind you, if it did turn out to be a simulation I'd have even more questions.

I suspect such religions will fall like many ancient ones before them or morph into new variations and they'll become background influences on cultures. I sort of think that time isn't all that linear and we live in an overlapping stream of chaos.

I would not be surprised the nun was trying to avoid my question and used her knowledge of scripture to satisfy a curious child. I am not sure she meant harm (I much preferred the nuns and Jesuit monks in my school who seemed genuinely kind and patient unlike the priests who were more dismissive and pompous).