Only athiests need reply.

[flobadob]

If you don't mind answering this question, what religion were you before you became an athiest? With most people I assume you were brought into a family with some religious belief and decided to give it up at some stage. If you wish to elaborate, did you actually go through a whole process of getting yourself totally removed from the faith or do you just not practice the religion anymore?

[Jan1957]

No religion in my family at all. Both my parents were atheists and my three sisters and I are all the same, although two of them did get married in a church which I found hypocritical.

[fredpuli47]

My family were Church of England but neither of my parents was at all reilgious and they never went to church except socially, that is weddings, funerals and,the occasional christening. Accordingly, there was no serious impediment to my taking any faith or none. I rapidly came to dislike the panoply of religion, the magnificent cathedrals built in the poorest places for example. As a young adult I took to being a Quaker, a simple, unadorned, principled faith with the barest of essentials to its meetings and no one person set up to lecture or address a congregation. But eventually I questioned the whole basis of Christian beliefs. Most of that seemed, in reality, to have been the musings and elaborations of Paul in any case. But it was fundamentally flawed anyway.There was absolutely no reason for a god to send his son to cure lepers and work other miracles, do acts in defiance of all laws of physics and party tricks like turning water into wine, just to sell a philosophy. This god, singularly,did not let his son show the rest of us how to cure the sick, so his sons presence did not physically improve the lot of mankind, however faithful.He also did not contrive to ensure a truly contemporary record of his son's doings or teachings, which was singularly remiss of a god considering that he'd put his son on Earth for a purpose !
What use is a god? Does anyone seriously think that atheists are more criminal or less moral than believers? Or that having no belief in an afterlife or heaven causes a man, who knows he has but one finite life and no 'reward' after death, to be a worse citizen to his fellow men? I see no reason for believing in one, nor do I see any reason for there to be one.

[carrot99]

both my parents were born into Catholic families in the 1920s but my dad was taken away from the church after the war when his dad, who suffered from shell-shock, decided there was no god, I know my mum believes there is a god because she said so when I asked her. So I was baptised C of E as I suppose christenings were still expected in the 50s and went to a C of E grammar school. My parents never showed any religious leanings and although I received an excellent grounding in the Cof E faith at a high church school, with lessons on the bible, the church year and a weekly lesson from a father, monk or other visiting religious person I've never actually believed in a god.

[ayabrea38]

For some people the power of belief is enough,others just go with the flow.Each to their own,but I do belive some religious people think itis the devils work so to speak that makes people non belivers.

[carrot99]

well they would, wouldn't they?

[Panic Button]

Mother is Methodist, and believes totally.

Father was C of E, though I don't think he actually believed.

I was a practicing christian until my late teens, but questioned it more and more.

Now I realise there is no god.
Every tribe in the world concocts its own fairy store about life after death because man finds it hard to accept that when you die that's it.

[carrot99]

good point wiz!

[jno]

actually, wizard, I believe there is some evidence suggesting that religion has a genetic component. There was a study four or five years ago, though I regret I haven't been able to track it down online.

[zig.zag]

i always used to think i was an athiests until i realised i was God!!

[carrot99]

well all hail the Zig Zag..

[LazyGun]

I was brought up in a family only nominally CoE. They had no real interest or belief in religion, and although as a child I went to sunday school, My own belief / faith went once I had got to the age of 12-13. Never looked back since ;)

[jno]

... some reference to it here, but on my screen at least much of it appears to be garbled.

http://jeksite.org/psi/si04.pdf

Rather awkward if religion is gene-based, because then sneering at people for being religious would be on a par with sneering at them because they were black.

[BilSuth]

It is interesting to see so many people rationalising their own positions succinctly.
Many people nowadays find religion irrelevant. There are no persuasive manifestations of the existence of God, whereas in the Middle Ages people were deeply religious and superstitious, so there were wonders and signs and omens happening all the time which were beyond their understanding.
Of my two greatest difficulties the first is the magnitude of the universe and why the Almighty should concern himself with one trivial little planet. Apologists might argue that we humans have to live somewhere and it happens to be Earth, but rationalists would insist that the need for a being more powerful than ourselves and His/Her preoccupation with our puny Earth reflect human vanity.
Equally mind-blowing is the time factor. Out of countless millions of years that the universe has existed, it is only the past 2000 to 10,000 years, depending on your religion, that have any spiritual significance whatsoever. How did God stay busy for the 23 hours and 59 minutes of the day up until now?

[carrot99]

Out of countless millions of years that the universe has existed, it is only the past 2000 to 10,000 years, depending on your religion, that have any spiritual significance whatsoever. How did God stay busy for the 23 hours and 59 minutes of the day up until now?

no problem for atheists!

[WaldoMcFroog]

"Rather awkward if religion is gene-based, because then sneering at people for being religious would be on a par with sneering at them because they were black."

That's an interestingly emotive genetic trait to have chosen. Perhaps it would be more analogous to an illness such as Huntingdon's disease? And we could potentially invent a gene therapy to cure people.

Such a fact would suggest that there is (or has been) an evolutionary benefit from being religious - it's well known that religious people tend to live slightly longer, possibly because they content themselves with their myths, and certainly in-group bonding is stronger.

But this misses the point. There is research that suggests there is a genetic predisposition towards religious beliefs but that tells us nothing whatsoever about which religion is true, or indeed that any religion is true (the fact that the advantage is irresepective of which myth is believed would strongly indicate none are).

[mollykins]

both lots of grandparents were religious but my parents ebcame aeithiests and then i was agnostic i supose until i decided that i didn't believe in god.

[Sandy-Wroe]

I was brought up in a nominal RC family and went to a Catholic school. I can't remember a time when I believed. Apart from a few social occasions I haven't been inside a church for years.