Was there a defining moment for you?

diddley

Was there a defining moment or turning point for you where you decided to reject religion or were u born like that? Since this is Ireland and relatively religious still I'm guessing there were 'moments' for some of you. It would be interesting to hear them...

AtomicHorror

diddley wrote: »

Was there a defining moment or turning point for you where you decided to reject religion or were u born like that? Since this is Ireland and relatively religious still I'm guessing there were 'moments' for some of you. It would be interesting to hear them...

For me it was a gradual process that started when I was around 14 and didn't really resolve itself until I was about 20. My younger brother was an atheist by the time he was 14 and had a huge impact on me. He used his own version of the flying spaghetti monster argument and that started the ball rolling.

Craft25

Two turning points:

1. as a kid my mother bought me a weekly hisory album that you keep in a folder, much like a football sticker album (i got that too ) and that started my love of knowledge and gave me the strength to stand up to a biased school system.. which leads me to no..

2. I had a whacky religion teacher(nun) in the same year i did (off my own steam) a major science project on the solar system.. first class..she said god clicked his fingers on the first day.. i said whoah there now honey!!! lets just examine that for a second.. we got in to such major agruments every week that i was called the son of satan and made to stand alone in the middle of the classroom with my back to them!! i couldnt believe how docilely the rest of class took it (and this was the top tier!!), my parents just said to tow the line so i'd no way to fight her officially really!!

on from that was just looking into and behind everything for myself

sink

Being brought up in a non-religious family agnosticism was the default position. Through school and life in general I've been exposed to many religious beliefs none of which I found very convincing. In my late teens I reached the stage where I completely rejected the idea of a personal god or a god who has any daily influence on the universe and especially one who concerns themselves with the well-being of man. I am now at the position where I would say the possibility of the existence of a creator is very slight but can not reject it out of hand without a further understanding of how the universe came into being.

Daemonic

Unlike 'finding god' that some religious folks experience, I think coming around to an atheistic perspective is a more gradual process.
There was definetly no sudden realisation for me. I don't even recall thinking it about it too much until my early 20's by which time I knew the whole god business just didn't make sense.
Nothing I've experienced or read etc since has persuaded me otherwise.

anti-venom

There wasn't any one defining moment for me either but rather a series of events that spurred me into thinking. I never really had a convincing and deep sense of God like other kids my age, though there was always this fear of God in my mind. I guess the brainwashing just wasn't thorough enough. I always had questions at school for my beleagured teachers. I simply couldn't ignore or accept facile explainations to these perplexing mysteries and blaring contradictions inherent in religion. How could we have both destiny and freewill? How could we write off as nonsense a lot of other religions when their followers believed as fervently as we were supposed to? Lots more questions besides and the more I pressed for satisfactory answers the more I was fobbed of with the usually dismissive lines of 'God works in mysterious ways' and 'why do you have to question everything, can't you just have faith?' etc, etc.

Eventually it dawned on me that these people I had trusted simply didn't have any answers, and worse still, were unprepared to give me any, so I was left to my own devices to explore the mysteries of the faith. Freedom of mind is a religion killer as I subsequently discovered. Once those tethers of blind faith in my mind had been cut a fearless new inquiry began. I was now able to explore my own thoughts and feelings without being terrified of going to hell for my silent inpiousness. There was no sign of God anywhere and he never revealed himself to me or anyone else I knew so I quickly began to apply the same logical thinking to God as I did to the other mystery man in my head five years previously - Santa. Atheism for me began with a hugh 'Oh yeah........now I see'. For years after this I still felt the odd frisson of fear and guilt. I now realise that this was simply the psychological scarring coming to the surface. My (dwindling) feelings of fear and guilt were my OWN and not placed there by any god in order to frighten me back onto a path of righteousness. Freedom came in great increments and continues to grow.

all the stars

i've always just been more into the earth.. and all that sort of thing. Noticed how it provides what we need..
Always been a bit of a hippy :cool:
Just didn't fully grasp the concept of not questioning, or not having very good questions awnsered.

Its whatever floats your boat.

Dave!

Nah not really... I had never been especially religious except in a "god can you stop me getting in trouble for not doing my homework?" kind of way.

Since I was about 15 I had been constantly thinking about all kinds of philosophical crap, and during class used to be writing pages of rambling diary-style gibberish about it. Basically the idea of a god never sat well with me. In particular I found it strange that previous civilisations had deities for various phenomena such as the sun... rain... lightning... and we no longer do. And of course this ties in with scientific progress. The whole receding 'god of the gaps' notion was becoming quite clear to me.

I also noticed that our idea of god fits in nicely with what we would want to be true... ie. everything has a purpose, there is an afterlife, our deceased relatives are not gone forever, there is a big plan for us all, bad things happen for a reason.
And of course, this did not sit well with me either

Anywho I just kept reading into it, analysing the arguments, and became more and more convinced that gods are man-made ideas that serve certain purposes in life.

Bottle_of_Smoke

When I did leaving cert physics

Hivemind187

When I realised that there was little difference between the major religions I had encountered and any other clique or club "follow this set of arcane rules that make no sense in todays world or you can't play and we'll say stuff behind your back" my distrust and questions were founded.

Later, after spending a lot of time reading various occult books (AE waite, crowley and lots of squiggles attributed to King Solomon) and found that none of it worked at all my suspicions deepened.

Then I read the Satanic Bible by LaVey and realised that he pretty much hit the nail on the head - and had used the same tactics himself to establish his own dogmatic system (though non-deity ridden).

After a while I finally managed to shed the last of the supersitions I had from indoctrination by overzealous (if well meaning) aunts and grannys to become the well-rounded human being I have become

Black Swan

Agnostic. No defining moment, just sort of drifting about, with bits and pieces of Christian ethic from Catholic upbringing remaining, intermixed with an eclectic cherry picking of various philosophical perspectives. I do lean towards Derridian postmodern deconstructionism, but that is more a method than a philosophy of life or being. But I am still young (just 21), so maybe I'll get more set in my views as I get older, who knows?

LolaLuv

When I realized my mom's handwriting matched Santa's, and if all the adults had been lying about that then they were probably lying about god, too.

dissident

I was brought up in an agnostic family and my teachers tried trick me into going to church and force me to say prayers, I also got in alot of fights with the kids in school because i didn't believe what they did, that made me hate religion in a way, also i thought it was freaky that a lad in - what looked like a dress - was rubbing my head and trying to feed me bread and calling it the body of Christ :rolleyes:

Defining moments are for religious people tbh..

It's a long process that involves alot of crossed-thought and deep thinking.

And a big dick. Athiests have big dicks.

Obni

15th Birthday.
Woke up a christian, got out of bed an atheist.
Nice sunny Sunday morning. Lay in bed thinking about my life to date and at some point had the startling realisation that religion was hogwash!
(A St. Paul in reverse, on the road to Da-mattress (ouch))

I can't honestly say that I've retained with complete clarity the chain of thought, but I seem to recall it was along the lines of "Hey! If I'd been born in Israel I'd be Jewish, or if in Saudi Arabia I'd be a Moslem, or elsewhere a Hindu, or whatever, and my view of the world and my place in it would be so different. Lucky for me I was born in the one religion that was true among the thousands of beliefs that are complete nonesense. Wow, the right one among thousands and thousands and thousands, ... wait a minute...! :eek:

eoin5

I was a pretty devout catholic until I went to college and stayed in catholic run on campus accomodation. On certain nights they had services on that invited the most indoctrinated, lost without god, people on board. After about 6 months of being in contact with these people I realised it was mostly a containment system for people who had become insane, although I couldnt have put it into those words at the time. Around then I realised I had been too gullable throughout my life and an open mind and critical thinking was the way to go.

I do suspect that my second level experiences had lessened my beliefs too in many areas over a long period of time, but the most defining period was those six months after starting college.

Edit: just to clarify I didnt go to the services, these people just came into our living area and ate our toast while we were there paying for it

AtomicHorror

PillyPen wrote: »

When I realized my mom's handwriting matched Santa's, and if all the adults had been lying about that then they were probably lying about god, too.

My lil brother was asking for Santa's signature for validation purposes from the age of 8. God never stood a chance with that guy. :pac:

LolaLuv

AtomicHorror wrote: »

My lil brother was asking for Santa's signature for validation purposes from the age of 8. God never stood a chance with that guy. :pac:

Lol! I hope I have a kid like that. Can't give them any sort of crap.

Pompey Magnus

I was a pretty devout Catholic up until my final year in College when a friend introduced me to The Selfish Gene, I found it to be a much more satisfying explanation for life than what religion provided. My faith gradually declined after that, experiencing one final peak around the time of the death of Pope John Paul II. After that it continued to fall away.

Zillah

all the stars wrote: »

i've always just been more into the earth.. and all that sort of thing. Noticed how it provides what we need..
Always been a bit of a hippy :cool:
Just didn't fully grasp the concept of not questioning, or not having very good questions awnsered.

Its whatever floats your boat.

You'll fit right in, I'm sure.

CerebralCortex

I think subconsciously I was an atheist from the point in time when my uber-religious 1st/2nd class teacher gave me a dead arm for looking at a fly when she was telling a biblical story of some sort. I took a few years though to give up the crutch that religion provided. This was helped along by sheepishly people go along with religion out of nothing more than fear its disgraceful!

all the stars

Zillah wrote: »

You'll fit right in, I'm sure.

very nice of you.
but i never fitted in. its my cross to bear (it somes in pretty colours too!)

username123

Im not sure if I ever believed. Had some humiliating experiences at the hands of nuns in religious orders school I was sent to as a young child. Slowly realised that the nuns were for the most part bitter women (not all of them - but a lot). Asked a lot of questions in school - got no answers. Then moved house and changed school, suddenly was allowed to ask questions without receiving the 'we dont question gods ways' response.
One day realised while in Mass with the folks (probably around 13 yrs old), that the priest was effectively up there talking about his imaginary friend. Came round to realising that religious war is based on 'My imaginary friend is better than your imaginary friend' and that it was an accident of birth which faith you became indoctrinated into - wondered why people were not left with no religion til they were old enough to make an informed choice.

Further thinking convinced me it was all a bunch of clap trap - although I do enjoy the ceremonies of organised religions, the smell of incense, the murmuring in Latin of the catholic church - but the underlying belief in a God just doesnt make sense.

Read 'The God Delusion' - thought it should have been renamed 'Statements of the Bleedin Obvious'.

nozzferrahhtoo

No defining moment for me either. I never believed it. Even when primary school teachers were teaching biblical stories and all I just thought of it as some kind of "story time" the same as you’d get when you went home and watched bosco on RTE. Tele gave you good stories. The books I read from an early age gave good stories. The bible to me was just another load of good stories. Still is.

The only defining moments that make me more militant is when you try to take an interest in human affairs, education, politics, morality, science, health issues or ANYTHING and you constantly meet religion. You want to leave it alone and just let it be but it just.... won’t.... let.... you.

It is everywhere and it is used as a conversation stopper to win any argument that you antagonist wants to win. "I am right, god says so too, so you are wrong and you will burn in hell".
No matter what your agenda you can cite your gods support and sit back smug as if you have just won something but you are not expected to provide any evidence for your god even existing... let alone PROVE it does.

Malari

AtomicHorror wrote: »

My lil brother was asking for Santa's signature for validation purposes from the age of 8. God never stood a chance with that guy. :pac:

We used to get satsumas in the bottom of our stocking of goodies. One year I said to mum "I think Santa takes fruit from our fruit bowl, instead of bringing his own!" Shortly after that I put two and two together Same with god.

Goduznt Xzst

I guess it was a question a friend asked me in college. I was a very devout Christian and defended my beliefs openly, a lot of the time most of the people who claimed to be Atheist that I debated with usually ended up actually being agnostic and backing down when I'd give them one the plethora of misleading Christian analogies.

One person however actually was Atheist and the only topic he'd argue was the global flood. He stuck to it because it is probably the only story from the bible that is easily testable and refuted without it relying on faith or Gods power to accomplish it.

I remember the first question that clicked something in my brain was "How did all the marsupials get to Australia in 1 generation without leaving a fossil record of their migration" and "why did they need to go to Australia?"

These questions started me into researching the scientific evidence behind the flood, initially to refute my college friends claims, and how, if it actually happened, there would be overwhelming evidence to support it. What I found was just more questions. The Christian evidence was flaky at best whereas every other scientific field pretty much refutes that the biblical flood every happened on a global scale.

This article on the flood was pretty much the cornerstone of when my faith started to die and I started to accept reality:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html

Galvasean

I grew up in a Catholic family, although they werent exactly hard core. I think I started having doubts when i was around 8. I was a big fan of the David Attenborough documentaries and had a massive knowledge of animals (not to mention dinosaurs!).
When you compare the studies of the natural world to what they told you in religion class, one school of taught presents a much better case than the other.
I started calling myself agnostic when I was around 12 (starting secondary school). Didn't admit to being an atheist until I was about 15 because you can only take so much of clueless irate 11-13 year olds getting rilled up and asking questions like "Why don't you believe in God?" or telling me to prove God doesn't exist.

Actually a major turning point was the first Christmas when I refused to go to mass. My Dad joined my protest. "If the boy doesn't have to go, then neither do I!"

Dave!

Gaviscon wrote: »

Actually a major turning point was the first Christmas when I refused to go to mass. My Dad joined my protest. "If the boy doesn't have to go, then neither do I!"

haha legend

Sonderval

Agnostic here, being a scientist I cannot absolutely refute the existence of god-like beings (but I do dispute the existence of the personal god present in religious writings). Give me an uzi and a zippo lighter, transport me to 10,000bc and I'd be a god among my ancestors

Like most people here, the whole 'god' thing didn't gel with what I knew and could observe from a very early age. The fact that I was fascinated (and still am) by outer space and the universe from when I was 5 probably helped. Once you cop that the bible and all those sort of scriptures discount the universe we see every night, it becomes very hard to find them credible.

In saying that, I find the meditation aspects of Buddhism very useful. Though I consider Buddhism more akin to a philosophy then a religion.

markyedison

I grew up in a religious family, went to mass every sunday until I was twelve and attended religious schools even into third level. I can honestly say that I have had no bad experiences of religion or it's practicioners, (tho I do view the influence of organised religion to be malignant imposition on humanity).

Despite being surrounded by religion every day, it was and remains to be something incomprehensible to me.
Faith is not something I have ever had or understood.

Therefore to answer your question, I believe that my Atheism (or whatever you wish to call it ) is innate. I have never chosen not to believe in Gods. I cannot fathom anyone who does belive in Gods.

Given the near-universality of belief in Gods I can only conclude that I have some developmental abnormality or genetic mutation that has affected the area of my brain that handles religion. I like to think of it as an inborn immunity to bull****.

Cheers,
Marky

P.S. I hope it's hereditary

ChocolateSauce

Having been raised by a militantly atheist mother, I was never very religious. She never explicitly told me there was no god, just that she didn't think so.

Anyway, I "realised" there was no god at the age of 8, in our car, waiting in traffic outside the tax office near Harcourt St. with the No. 19 bus in front of us. It was about 12 noon and it was overcast. We were on our way to McDonalds. I demanded she tell me was Santa real, she said no, and the rest was history.

fitz0

Hmm like most I had no defining moent as such. I was actually quite religious when I was younger. I even considered becoming a priest... for about 2 weeks! Suppose I just started thinking round about the age of 17.
Started thinking one day about how if god (omnipotent, all powerful) supposedly created man in his own image, why was there greed, jealousy etc. If god saw all, then maybe god had these traits too and as such it all seemed a bit pointless. Unless he couldnt see ahead -> wasnt omnipotent -> not all powerful -> not really a god then is he/she/it? Not much of an arguement against a god but it got the ball rolling.

One thing though is that a lot of my friends and aquaintances say they believe in god and consider themselves Catholic but want no part in it. Bit of a contradiction I know but they want to keep being Cathlics with no mass, no confessions, no praying. They keep their Christmas though.

My brother in particular does this. When I first started voicing my atheism to my family he backed me up, agreed with me and even started doing his own reading about it. He pointed me to a few interesting things and I honestly thought he considered himself an atheist but no! He still says he believes in god, calls himself a Catholic etc. Now I have nothing against him being religious only he did all the leg work. He just couldnt give up the religious crutch. Maybe Im being petty but I just cant understand and now I think hes a bit weak for not going the whole way.

Galvasean

fitz0 wrote: »

One thing though is that a lot of my friends and aquaintances say they believe in god and consider themselves Catholic but want no part in it. Bit of a contradiction I know but they want to keep being Cathlics with no mass, no confessions, no praying. They keep their Christmas though.

Sounds like my family alright. In fact it sounds like most of the 'Catholics' I know. They only seem to be Catholic when its christmas or Celtic play Rangers.

Daemonic

Rojomcdojo wrote: »

And a big dick. Athiests have big dicks.

Really :eek:
****, I must believe in god after all

The Mad Hatter

Definite moment for me - sitting in a very long, very boring mass in the Friary in Sligo, at about twelve years old. I looked at the crucifix on the wall, and thought 'I've been told to think critically and examine evidence for everything, so why am I sitting here believing what I'm told without a shred of evidence?'

By the time mass was over, I was an atheist (though it was about another year before I ever heard the term).

That was it.

CPT. SURF

I suppose that atheism began to manifest itself in me when I was around 11 or 12 years old. All these groups of people going around believing that the vast majority of all human beings that have ever existed are burning in hell because they do not believe exactly what they believe. I thought that it must be very bad for a person's mental health to have images like that floating around in their head on a daily basis.

I took a few philosophy classes in my early college years and that was the end of any potential belief I might have had. The writings of Albert Camus had so much more meaning to me and made we want to squeeze the grape of life for every last drop that it is worth.

I felt an incredible sense of liberation when I knew I would never believe in God. Motivated and excited to make the most of my life and not spend my precious time here waiting to die. Waiting for a place that does not exist and giving up the place that actually does.

sdep

When I was four (yes, I know) I went to a nursery run by Catholic nuns - we'd just moved to London, and everywhere else was full, rather Biblically. At this time, my mother decided to hot-house us with a book on the Big Bang, the origins of the Earth, evolution etc. When the nuns gave us the Genesis version shortly after, I apparently regurgitated all this sciency stuff. They were not impressed. Anyway, after that I never really looked back.

At seven, I remember a trial of faith over school lunch when a girl demanded, 'Hands up who believes in God.' I dissented and the dinner ladies were informed, but all they did was saw that we finished our pudding and cleared out.

At some point, probably before I was 10, I got sent to Sunday School. There never seemed to be any religion around the house, so I guess it was to get shot of the kids on Sunday mornings. I always resented going, but the teachers didn't lay on the hard core stuff, and all we did was make those expanding newspaper palm trees - much more miraculous in the days of broadsheets - and bookmarks of some bloke called Zaccheus who slid up and down a tree.

I do vaguely remember experimenting with prayer when very young, but I never found anyone on the other end, and it was just another chore before going to bed; at least I could see the point of brushing your teeth.

Delirium

No. Just a growing mindset of questioning rules based on a religious stand point. Never really into religion growing up. Knew from about 12-13 it wasn't for me but had to spend many years banging heads with my dad before it was left up to me.

Xhristy

This post has been deleted.

The Mad Hatter

Sonderval wrote: »

In saying that, I find the meditation aspects of Buddhism very useful. Though I consider Buddhism more akin to a philosophy then a religion.

Definite ditto.

Though I also like the fact that the first rule of Buddhism is basically 'question everything.'

Zillah

Isn't it that desire causes suffering and to end suffering one must eliminate desire?

redfacedbear

It was a gradual process for me too, lasting from about 14yoa to 18.

I was raised a Catholic, but seeing as my father is an Atheist and my mother could be more described (at the time) as a Christian rather than a Catholic the only hard-core indoctrination I received was in school.

At 14 I began to critically look at what we were being taught and I had serious problems accepting some notions of Catholic Theology and practice - Transubstantiation, Papal Infallibility, Contraception, the status of women in the church, Original Sin, the Immaculate Conception & the Virgin Birth all caused me such doubts that I began describing myself as a Christian rather than a Catholic for a while.

I continued my exploration of my faith and continued to be unsatisfied by the answers that religion provided so by 16 I was calling myself Agnostic and by 18 I was an Atheist.

The Mad Hatter

Zillah wrote: »

Isn't it that desire causes suffering and to end suffering one must eliminate desire?

How is that a rule?

Is this even worth discussing?

Why is there a 'Turbo' button on my keyboard?

sink

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

Why is there a 'Turbo' button on my keyboard?

Must be old. IBM's in the late 80's / early 90's had a turbo function that would give you a speed boost.

rainbow kirby

I was never really comfortable with the ideas of religion, when I was very young all it meant to me was "that class where we get to use crayons that isn't called art". Started questioning a lot when I was about 9 years old, and around that time my grandmother was buying me the "Tree of Knowledge" part-work encyclopedia. I absolutely loved the science and nature parts of it and read them over and over again. By the time I was 11 years old and at Confirmation age, I was fairly certain there was no God, but went through with the whole thing for the money (like most kids!). As I went on to my teens, I started to read more feminist books and theory and realised that given the status of women in most organised religions I could never follow one - of course realising I was queer when I was 16 and knowing that most organised religions would condemn me for who I was didn't help matters! Also, the more science I read and studied, the more I was convinced that physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics explain the natural world far better than any religion ever could.

In short - functionally an agnostic at 9, atheist at 11-12 years old, still godless and happy at 24

deleriumtremens

like a lot of people, i didnt really think about or question religion until i was about 10 or 11, despite at that time knowing that we evolved from chimp-like ancestors and despite knowing the age of the earth and the universe! For some reason i didnt see the incompatibilities!
I was also well aware that catholicism was only one branch off of a general set of beliefs called christianity and that christianity was only one of many different religions, so the good old arguement of "why should my religion be any more correct than any other one" was just waiting to be thought about!!
So i was agnostic making my confirmation at the age of 12 but i still didnt really think much about it to be honest!
When i reached 13 though i noticed that ****ing everything us human beings like doing is a sin according to the bible so i wanted to believe that all that religious stuff wasnt true for my own good!! Also the thought of everasting life, in my opinion, was a sobering one!:)
Over the next 2 years my belief in anything supernatural kind of disappeared without me really noticing. I thought about some of the inconsitencies every so often. I thought about how for most of the worlds population, life is a daily struggle. I thought how for the vast vast majority of human history, life was horrible; people hadnt got as many morals as we do nowadays as they couldnt afford them in times of hunger, poverty and misery. Congenital diseases, how could a newborn child ever deserve that?
Over 2 years, I gladly peiced together in my mind little peices of info against the idea of a god.
I remember having to study for my junior cert religion exam when i was 15 and thinking "this is pointless learning this information!":p
But i only really became fully atheist at 16. I read "the god delusion" and seeing all dawkins' arguements in one place made me see more clearly.
I then read "the selfish gene" and my whole view of what life was and the purpose of it, as well as the reason why apparently selfless acts exist in nature, became more clear. I read a few more books after that by dawkins and another scientist called steven pinker that gave me a fully- rounded and godless view of the the world around me. Its not that i think about these things alot but its good to know the truth about these things, especially when you're just an 18 year old like meself!! :D I wont have any big scary ****ing doubts or anything to cower over when im dying, il just be going back to the way i was before i was born...free floating atoms!! :pac:

OK-Cancel-Apply

Yeah, at some point in my early teens I just thought, "Hey, there are lots of religions... why should the one I was born into be the correct one?? Hmm, you know what? I bet none of them are true..."

Of course, I never admitted my lack of belief to anyone. I probably didn't even know what an atheist was.

Years later, when I would let people in on the fact that I wasn't religious, I'd find them saying to me, "Well, surely you believe in something, yeah?". This began to p*ss me off. Some people would say, "Right, so you're an atheist then". I never really sought to find a new label for myself, but I suppose, in a world run on religion, we can't escape these labels.

Zillah

Whats wrong with labels if they're accurate?

OK-Cancel-Apply

Zillah wrote: »

Whats wrong with labels if they're accurate?

They come with so much baggage. If so say you're an atheist, there are many who'd make a whole bunch of other assumptions about you. It would be better if we didn't have to call ourselves atheists. In a religion-free world, the term would be redundant.

Dades

OK-Cancel-Apply wrote: »

If so say you're an atheist, there are many who'd make a whole bunch of other assumptions about you. It would be better if we didn't have to call ourselves atheists.

It would be better if people understood the term, and didn't make assumptions!

OK-Cancel-Apply wrote: »

In a religion-free world, the term would be redundant.

That would be good alright. People wouldn't be atheists they would just be people. Unfortunately, knowing people there is always some other discriminating feature to use.

OK-Cancel-Apply

Dades wrote: »

It would be better if people understood the term, and didn't make assumptions!

That would be good alright. People wouldn't be atheists they would just be people. Unfortunately, knowing people there is always some other discriminating feature to use.

Yeah, I don't think it's that they don't understand the term - it's more that it sort of 'shocks' them, if you know what I mean. Some people are really rubbed the wrong way by the fact that others actually stand on the other side of the fence and assume that there is no god. See, most of the time, I don't feel like I am going around 'holding the position' that there's no god - I just don't care about it, or think about it one way or another (except when I come here of course! ) Religious people are the ones holding the beach ball underwater, so they should have all the labels IMO.

You know what? Next time I tell someone I'm not religious, and they ask/tell me (if) I'm an atheist, I'm just going to shrug and say, "I dunno".