What age were you when you became Atheist?

Eathrin

As the title says,

Christianity has been forced upon children in this country for such a long time and for many years of one's life you would have no reason to believe in anything other than christianity, it seemed undeniable, something I would later discover was just one narrow-minded outlook on life. Though I was never a dedicated christian I had little question about belief during my child years, I believed in God like I believed in Santa and though I may have questioned their existence occasionaly I was usually strongly in favour of the imaginary.

So at 17 years of age I lost all faith in religion and I don't question my belief in the slightest. And though the world seems bleaker without the promises of everlasting paradise I'm glad to be able to see things clearly and the world for what it is. People live their whole lives believing in nonsense, I hope children in the future are given greater control over developing their own beliefs at a younger age.

Nailz

I can't really say there is a precise age... When I was a gawson I knew all the prayers, the biblical stories and all the other stuff, but I didn't know my arse from my elbow went it came to actually being spiritually involved in a specific faith. Kind of like everybody else in rural Ireland, that's what they teach in schools, you go to mass every weekend, because that's what they did when you happened to be growing up - you had no real say in the matter.

Although if I could put a rough age regarding when I stopped mindlessly saying "I'm Catholic" due to a lack of though on the matter, I would have to say around 15.

johnners2981

Think it was between 15-17. It happened gradually, I didn't hear or read anything to change my belief so don't know how or why I did. My family are quite religious and I really disliked having to go to mass, going to confessions and saying prayers so maybe forcing religion on me made me question it all.

I don't believe in teaching kids religion as it's quite obvious they'll believe anything you tell them. But for some reason religious people think that you need to teach kids religion or they'll have no morals

Doc Farrell

16, although I became an indifferent angry agnostic rather than an atheist. It followed a particularly vicious punch to the head from a religious teacher who should never have been allowed near children. He also beat up a kid who was just out of hospital having been mugged in the town and hit over the head with a baseball bat. 
I have great trouble forgiving that sadist and even now my blood boils when I encounter any elements of narcissism and grandiosity in clergy. As evidenced in the McQuaid letter in the other thread, the Catholic church destroyed itself from within and is now reaping what it sowed.
This tension in me of loathing gombeen Irish Catholicism while admiring and studying individual Christians makes me question everything to an unhealthy degree!
But in short, to answer your question, i've never been intentionally atheist for more than a few minutes but I've experienced dark nights of the soul many times for many months on end.

wonderfulname

As soon as I realised that the bible was being taught as fact, and not as fables, which I kind of always assumed they were as a kid (given that the two are fed to children in the exact same manner it's not surprising really), then I had to actually think about the whole idea of a god rather than passively accept it. Around the same time I started paying attention in mass and witnessed my first waking, which to this day freaks me out as the most cult like aspect of Catholicism I've ever witnessed.

But nobody around me was a real bible thumper, they just went through the motions that any proper person in the area was supposed to, there was no way they were going to be able to answer a child's questions in a manner that would reinforce the belief system.

When did I call myself atheist? When I knew what it was and copped on that 'Catholic' and 'Protestant' isn't the great and sole divide in Irish society it would have been made out to be at the time. That was at about 12, there are so many people who still think like that though, who don't believe in anything or follow the church in any manner but are still 'Catholic' as opposed to 'Protestant', and I still humour them unfortunately, but attempting to do anything else is pointless and tedious.

OP - As an aside I don't think the world seems bleaker for being atheist, I was trying to explain evolution to a born again Christian I know the other day and he flat out refused to listen, arguing over me that if the "theory" was true, then sheep wouldn't exist (I know...). I just can't imagine not being able to see the beauty and wonder in such a process, or in how a star forms, or the magnitude of the universe, or the complexity of our sub concious, or any number of things explained scientifically in conflict with belief. I pity people who refuse to see it, that outlook seems bleak to me.

Insect Overlord

I mentioned it in passing in another thread a few days ago that I first started to doubt Catholicism around the age of 10. I remember sitting at my desk in primary school, reading ahead in the book we were using for Religion and seeing the same things repeated over and over. Images, motifs and metaphors, questions and responses, repeated to a formula. Questions with illogical answers. Realising that someone was trying to brainwash me was a bit terrifying, but it did shock me into attention! Of course I still went through with confessions and Confirmation. I did readings at mass most weekends when I was in 5th and 6th Class too. I enjoyed hymns a lot, and I still do. Our local Taizé choir was renowned all over the country, so between the music and the candles and the atmosphere I used to enjoy the "spiritual" side of mass.

It gave up on Catholicism shortly after starting secondary school, but for a while I still believed in a god of some kind. I prayed almost every night when I was 13. I don't remember when that habit started or ended, but it was probably to do with my grandfather dying that year.

But the more I read and the more I studied and the more I thought about life, the universe and everything, the less sense religion made to me. The hypocritical outlook on sex, sin and contraception. Child abuse. Religious wars. Magdalene Laundries. The blatant contradictions throughout the Bible. The two-faced nature of some of the most die-hard "Christians" I knew. Natural disasters and human suffering.

The teachers who were supposed to be promoting the Catholic ethos of the school were actually feeding me all the ammo I needed to argue back against their ridiculous beliefs. We looked at comparative religions, the morality of drug and alcohol (ab)use, cults and sects, bullying and brainwashing. Teacher points out a flaw with one thing, it correlates to something in Christianity, but the latter is fine because it's something "we" believe in. I don't think so! I was definitely agnostic by the time I was turned 17, and probably before I was 16. I started writing poetry a lot at that stage, and I realised the same voice that was producing this poetry was the same one that used to say my prayers. As in, it was me all along and not some divine inspiration. That made things a bit easier to deal with. I knew I was thinking for myself.

I stayed at that stage for a long time. Quietly picking things apart, getting into arguments with believers (on Teenireland.com mostly :pac: ) and distancing myself from organised religion. I still appreciated meditation and music and candle light. I'd go to the odd anniversary mass to see relatives I don't see much of, but they wouldn't expect to see me in line for communion any more.

I think I only stopped mystifying spirituality in the last year or two. Studying in a college with a distinctly Catholic ethos nearly drove me to despair, but I got through it healthy enough. Went back to the same place for my MA and they still haven't got rid of me. :P But I'm comfortable calling myself an atheist now, aged 23. The sticky thread on the funny side of religion makes things easier. I always have something witty, something hilarious yet succinct and accurate, to reference whenever I need it. Like the Bible, but more logical and less infuriating.

amacachi

The geographical distribution of religions was an obvious one for me.

MrStuffins

I was always an Atheist, I just wasn't allowed realise it due to being force fed rubbish for approx the first 16 years of my life!

Nervous Wreck

I never had religion. I went to a Catholic school and was raised by Catholic parents but from the moment I was told (probably around age 6) that God was father and son to himself, I just couldn't reconcile that with reality. It didn't make sense so it wasn't true. There was no realisation of having no religion, just a simple feeling of "that sounds stupid, I'm gonna go play dinosaurs." After I made my communion, my dad brought me to mass every Sunday. Every Sunday for weeks and weeks, I cried and kicked and screamed and moaned. Eventually, my dad gave in and let me stay home with my mam while he brought my sisters to mass. A couple of months later, he stopped bringing them too; stopped going himself. My dad has been strictly atheist all his life; he just wanted us to fit in. That never ceases to seem messed up to me.

Gregor Samsa

Eathrin wrote: »

What age were you when you became Atheist?

Well, technically - like everyone else - I was born one. Then family and school gradually introduced the concept of god to me in such a way as it appeared to be a truth by default, but it never fully sat well with me. I finally went back to being an atheist by about 15.

Ellis Dee

You ask what age I was when I became an atheist. I suppose the answer to that is that, like everyone else, I was born an atheist. If by "atheist" you mean a person who does not believe in the existence of an immaterial, invisible, undetectable, but sentient being, which created and controls the universe.

It was only later in life, when I was capable of limited cognitive functions and subjected to false information that I, fortunately for a brief period only, believed some or all of the tales I was told about a god. Happily, as I learned to read and acquire information independently, it became increasingly clear to me that my initial failure to believe in a deity had been correct and my temporary belief in a god just an unfortunate waste of time.

Giselle

I've always been an atheist but I didn't have a word for it until I was about nine

Galvasean

Couldn't pinpoint an exact age. I know I only thought about it properly when I was in my teens during secondary school. Ironically in first year I was in a religion class with a very old skool christian at the helm. There was a Bible on every desk. One of my mates who was a bit of a messer kept directing me to the dirty bits in Leviticus. We'd make a game out of it - call out Bible verses that were funny/filthy/mental and watch the other person giggle (ah, the mindset of immature 13 year old boys). We would ask the teacher what said passages were all about but we were just told to stop messing and never got any real answers above "it's a metaphor" (but never explaining what it was a metaphor for [a meta-for?]) or "mysterious ways / free will" - non-specific and totally unsatisfying to an inquisitive young mind.
Stuff like that along with the geographical distribution of the world religions got me thinking, 'what is it that makes this particular religion the right one?' So I became agnostic / nothing in particular for a good while and gradually moved closer and closer to atheism as time went by. I would have been close to 20 before I actually started identifying myself as an atheist (personally) and did not 'come out' in public until some point in my early 20s.

meganj

Don't think there was an age for me. I was christened catholic and never made my communion or confirmation. I was in secular schools and an educate together for confirmation age. My mum was just too busy to organise a communion (this was when I used to sob that everyone else was getting to wear pretty dresses).

My Mother was always more spiritual then religious and she read a lot of greek and norse mythology to me, so for a long time I couldn't separate Catholicism from the other older myths.

I suppose when I realised I didn't believe in the Catholic Church, or mainstream Christian religion, was when I realised I was an illigitimate child and that some people have a problem with that because of religion, which was about ten.

I then lost any faith I had in God, or at least the way people understand God, when I realised that people would pray for X to happen and if it happened they would thank god, but meanwhile millions of people died across the world, and God did nothing to help them.

I'm more agnostic then atheist, I don't believe in God but I do believe in the Universe, I suppose it's a comfort thing more than anything!

Delirium

I don't think I could say when I became atheist or if I was atheist from a young age. I had a huge interest in mythology growing up, as well as an interest in books/comics.

Everyone accepted that Norse/Roman/Greek gods didn't exist and no one actually said that God was real, at least not in blunt way. I treated warnings of "God is watching" much like "the boogeyman will get you".

I would have been in my teens before hearing about any other religions and I was in my twenties before I even heard the term atheist. Atheist fit once I understood what it meant.

So, I would have been in my mid-twenties when I first self-identified as atheist but probably had been an atheist in all but name for longer.

kylith

Sometime betwen the ages of 12 and 16.

Galvasean

meganj wrote: »

I'm more agnostic then atheist, I don't believe in God but I do believe in the Universe, I suppose it's a comfort thing more than anything!

If I may ask, what do you mean by you believe in the universe as a 'comfort thing'? I mean the universe is there, we live in it. It's not really a matter of personal belief/open for debate.

Helix

i can always remember thinking that it was stupid. it was never something i bought into, nor was it anything my parents ever pushed on me. my father isn't religious at all, and my mother, even though she does believe in that stuff, was never pushy about it

i remember getting into trouble in 6th class when we were doing religion and we were asked to write something about god, which i didn't do, so the teacher had me stand up and asked me in front of everyone why i wasn't doing my work. i remember quite clearly telling her that i wasn't doing it because religion was a load of crap. i think it was my use of the word crap that got me into trouble moreso than the blast against religion

i didn't want to make my confirmation, but that was one of the few times my mother insisted on anything along those lines, based purely on the fact it was apparently easier for me to get into the secondary school i was going to if i was confirmed - which didn't actually turn out to be true as it was a multi-denominational school with a couple of protestants and a jehova's witness in my year

i genuinely don't know why religion never sat well with me. there was nobody in my upbringing who was anti religion as such, and it was never something that was rubbished or scoffed - in fact it was never something that was discussed full stop. from the times my mother would bring me to mass i just always remember thinking it was ridiculous that all these grown adults were sitting there every week listening to a man in silly clothes talking about all this childish nonsense that made no rational sense

Bannasidhe

7.

I remember it well.

It was a 'discussion' about Papal Infallibility - well I thought it was a discussion.

The Nun (Sr Carmel - she was about 900 years old and a bit of a sweetie TBH) told us the Pope was infallible. Upshoots my hand and I asked what infallible meant (yes- I was one of those children). With a sigh borne out of having taught me for 2 years, Sr Carmel said infallible means the Pope can never be wrong. Up goes the hand again. 'What? About anything?'. 'The Pope can never be wrong!!'.

- Note - no mention was made about doctrine.

Up with the hand again. 'But Sr Carmel, My Nanna told me that Pope John changed a lot of things after Vatican II (my Nanna was a big fan of John XXIII) - so does that mean the Popes before John were wrong, cos if they had been right why did John change things???....'

'The Pope can never be wrong!!!!!'

A vital thought having occurred, my entire body was propelled upwards, hand frantically waving.

'Sister Carmel - how do we know the Pope is infallible?'
'Because he told us he is'.

'......ummm....the Pope can never be wrong because the Pope says he can never be wrong?!?!?!'

'yes! Now shut up and sit down!!!!'

I remained standing. I looked around me in confusion at my classmates. I looked at Sr Carmel. I spoke my last words in that classroom. 'Soooo, the Pope can never be wrong. We know this is true because the Pope said so... Am I the only one who sees what is wrong with that???'.

I was.

The Head Nun phoned my Mam. My Mam and the Head Nun got into it. My Mam believed the purpose of eduction was to, well, educate and asking questions was part of that process (as long as I wasn't plaguing her with questions obviously).

So there I was, sitting in the classroom having been forbidden to speak. Arms folded and in a righteous strop when the classroom door burst open and my Mam and the Head Nun stormed in. My Mam ordered me out of my seat, ordered the Head Nun out of the way and I left that school for ever.

My Mam's parting shot to the Head Nun was 'I sent my daughter to this school to be educated - not indoctrinated. If you can't do that, I will find a school that can!'

A week later I started at a private non-denominational school where I wasn't the 'only' one... cost my poor parents a bloody fortune....

Galvasean

Helix wrote: »

i genuinely don't know why religion never sat well with me. there was nobody in my upbringing who was anti religion as such, and it was never something that was rubbished or scoffed - in fact it was never something that was discussed full stop.

I think that is fairly indicative that left to their own devices people would by and large not genuinely come to the conclusion that any particular religion gave a satisfying explanation of the world/universe. That is why religions tend to be so insistent on indoctrinating people into their belief system at the earliest and most impressionable time possible.

campo

I was in my ealry 20's , I remember it because I was watchig a programme about the universe and how vast it was and how evolution works and from there on in I looked at god as a Santa figure....

Although I have to admit I would love to be wrong as lets be honest when we die we all hope there is somethig after that

Orion

Giselle wrote: »

I've always been an atheist but I didn't have a word for it until I was about nine

This for me too. I never believed in an all powerful deity but didn't know there were options until about this age.

kylith

campo wrote: »

I was in my ealry 20's , I remember it because I was watchig a programme about the universe and how vast it was and how evolution works and from there on in I looked at god as a Santa figure....

Although I have to admit I would love to be wrong as lets be honest when we die we all hope there is somethig after that

Nope. There is no way I want to spend eternity with my grandmother. I love her and all, but she was a sexist racist who would, no doubt, drive me absolutely batty. The same with my parents: I love them but my mum and I drive each other up the wall after 2 days. I'd hate to see what we'd be like after untold centuries*.

*Some people claim that you wouldn't get frustrated in heaven, but I take the view that if you wouldn't react to something the way you did when you were alive then you wouldn't be you.

eviltwin

Only in the past 5 years since the age of about 29. Always had issues with the church though, can't remember a time when I didn't feel in conflict with it. Its been hard cause I come from a deeply religious family, I think if they had a been a bit less full on I would have reconciled it with myself years ago.

swampgas

Was first confronted with the concept at about age 15 (a good friend of mine declared his atheism) but it took me a couple of years to really get my own head around it. I was 17 when I was utterly convinced and declared myself an atheist to my parents.

Malari

Early teens when I started describing myself as such, but I've always had a healthy disrespect for religion, ever since I screamed the church down in my holy communion outfit when I realised that old nun was going to try to put bread directly into my mouth! :eek:

meganj

Galvasean wrote: »

If I may ask, what do you mean by you believe in the universe as a 'comfort thing'? I mean the universe is there, we live in it. It's not really a matter of personal belief/open for debate.

My apologies, clearly I know the universe exists.


What I meant when I said Universe is similar to fate. I believe that things happen in the Universe in order for the Universe to keep moving.

In essence 'shit happens for a reason'. Which might just be a basic tenant of the universe and not a personal belief system...

Sarky

By "sh*t happens" do you mean things like a ball rolling down a hill, and "a reason" meaning gravity, friction, and such?

Ickle Magoo

I've never been anything other than an atheist...I was four or five when I started having chats with my dad about just not getting the whole "god thang".

meganj

Sarky wrote: »

By "sh*t happens" do you mean things like a ball rolling down a hill, and "a reason" meaning gravity, friction, and such?

Well gravity is a cruel and unpredictable mistress.

Nervous Wreck

meganj wrote: »

Well gravity is a cruel and unpredictable mistress.

Gravity is fairly predictable, in fairness.....

Giselle

meganj wrote: »

Well gravity is a cruel and unpredictable mistress.

Its cruel alright, but all too predictable.





EDIT:oops, already said above.

G.K.

Fortunate enough to have been raised by 2 secular parents.

Gregor Samsa

G.K. wrote: »

Fortunate enough to have been raised by 2 secular parents.

Hopefully my daughter will be saying that in 20 years time, and not posting on a Scientology forum in a thread called "What age were you when you became a Clear?"

Pace2008

I've always been a fan of using different terms, whatever their origin, to convey similar concepts but it seems this is simply not acceptable. If anyone could pint me towards the Official Irish List of Permissible Words and Phrases I'd be very much indebted. Judging by this thread it's pretty thin on content so it shouldn't take me too long to get up to speed.

Oh, and where did people come up with the fancy that "Can I have" is in any way unique to America? Have you actually been to Ireland before?

markfla

I was born an atheist just like everyone else on the planet until society or parents interfered.

Turtwig

Pace2008 wrote: »

I've always been a fan of using different terms, whatever their origin, to convey similar concepts but it seems this is simply not acceptable. If anyone could pint me towards the Official Irish List of Permissible Words and Phrases I'd be very much indebted. Judging by this thread it's pretty thin on content so it shouldn't take me too long to get up to speed.

Oh, and where did people come up with the fancy that "Can I have" is in any way unique to America? Have you actually been to Ireland before?

^^^

Galvasean

markfla wrote: »

I was born an atheist just like everyone else on the planet until society or parents interfered.

I think the thread was more so about when you became 'born again' atheist

Gbear

G.K. wrote: »

Fortunate enough to have been raised by 2 secular parents.

Me also. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised there are so few "2nd generation" atheists here.

I had gotten used to saying that, just as I disagree with parents who indoctrinate their kids into a religion, my parents didn't indoctrinate me to dislike religion - but they did.
And I'm glad of it. Religion is silly. Parents teaching their kids that religion is nonsense is no more immoral than teaching them that perpetual motion machines don't work.

I just wish they hadn't gone a bit soft and pulled the whole santa claus thing.:pac:

Improbable

Born to atheist parents. Religion was just never an issue. I knew about it and that other people believed in these "god" things and followed a variety of religions but that was about the extent of it.

Knasher

I grew up in a fairly rural area to pretty religious parents who quite probably have never missed a week of mass in their lives and to a reasonably tight knit extended family with five members members of the clergy. I went to a catholic primary school (but then who doesn't in rural Ireland) and a holy ghost run secondary school. R.E. in my school was such that I couldn't have told you the difference between catholicism and protestantism (or even knew about the degrees therein) beyond being pretty sure that the rest of them were wrong. I'm not exactly an outgoing person, so it's entirely possible that I didn't have a conversation with another person who wasn't catholic until college. So I feel a little justified in de-converting comparatively late at 24.

I'm 27 now and when I look back it's so very weird to realise I was living in a bubble.

Ms Mustard

Lost my religion at 16.
Raised my children religion free.
Losing "God" was a little trickier.
Honestly? Completely?
Probably not until my mother died a few years ago.
I was 44.

MungoMan

The lightbulb moment for me was one day at school when I was 12.
Our teacher occasionally read stories from the bible to us, maybe once a fortnight.
It was the story of "Jonah and the whale" which first got me thinking.
This story was about a man who was swallowed by a whale, and three days later, the man emerged from the whale (still alive)

I remember thinking, what an incredible load of horse shyte of a story, it was more far detached from reality than something out of a Harry Potter novel.

And after several other stories of magic and science busting happenings, I was very happy to join the ranks of people who don't have any beliefs, and much the happier I was because of it. It made me feel intellectually clensed from the shackles of superstition and the total stupidity of man made belief systems.

joseph brand

Pace2008 wrote: »

I've always been a fan of using different terms, whatever their origin, to convey similar concepts but it seems this is simply not acceptable. If anyone could pint me towards the Official Irish List of Permissible Words and Phrases I'd be very much indebted. Judging by this thread it's pretty thin on content so it shouldn't take me too long to get up to speed.

Oh, and where did people come up with the fancy that "Can I have" is in any way unique to America? Have you actually been to Ireland before?

The who? the where? and the what now?

That is hilarious. I burst out laughing at this.