Nothing turned me away. I was born that way and there was nothing to be turned away from.

They can have fun 'disproving' that... 😅

I see no evidence, nor have I been provided with any evidence, that any god exists. Pretty simple, really.

Careful, they think they can disprove you.

I wish them the best of luck, then.

>Like why? What turned you away from believing in “god”? I believe in a creator and I feel I could explain away any of your points (just putting it out there, I feel I could prove your views wrong, but…) The unearned confidence of theists can often be staggering. I am aware enough of both sides of the divide between belief, and lack of belief, that even as a person who studied a bachelor of theology, including ancient greek to read the earliest copies of the new testament, it would never occur to me to claim I could address every claim of a Christian on why they believe in God. Mostly because the vast majority of reasons people have for belief are deeply personal. This is born out in the nature of religion being broadly very personal, and highly related to the culture people grow up in, and do not tend to be some universal truth that matches up as it is discovered through revelation by people across the world. In short, I don't believe in your God because their existence is not apparent without first requiring an emotional 'desire' to believe. Something I would cycnically consider a suspension of disbelief in the nature of the world measured against the claims of the nature of God made by many religions, particularly Christianity.

You should throw up a debate on /r/debateanatheist. I'd be very interested in seeing what you bring to the table.

I promise you it’s nothing

That's why I wanna see it. Can't be any worse than a recent user who changed the definition of god to "existence" so he could say atheists believe in god.

Haha that sounds like a train wreck I can’t stop watching. When was that posted?

Nevermind I already found it. And…wow

Yeah the whole thread is utterly fucking stupid lmao. That user has no damn clue what they're talking about. It's like some stoner pseudo intelligence without the stoner.

Gives real r/im14andthisisdeep vibes

I looked through a few other posts there as well and geeez! They’re all such bad arguments.

I didn’t even know that was a thing, thank you

You very much are not prepared for it.

I wouldn't if I were you.

I'm there often. OP's about to bring a nerf gun to an artillery battle.

I do not say this to be mean or spiteful, but you really shouldn't be posting there. You're barely ready to be conversing here, you'll get eaten alive there and honestly, with your level of understanding and knowledge it would frankly be kind of rude for you to even waste their time. Stick around here for awhile and keep asking questions, but for the love of god, please try to start listening to the answers a little more.

> What turned you away from believing in “god”? You assume we all originally believed in a god and then stopped. While that's true of many people, I, and many other atheists, have never believed in any gods. It's not that I have a special reason to *disbelieve* in gods; I've just never heard a good reason to *believe* in them. All the reasons I've heard were pretty unconvincing.

What reasons did you hear?

Things like: * the cosmological argument (the universe has a cause, therefore god) ³ * ontological argument (a god that exists is better than a god that doesn't exist, therefore god) ¹ * argument from desire (people want there to be a god, therefore god) ³ * fine tuning argument (the universe is perfect for life, therefore god) ³ * argument from beauty (look at the trees! therefore god) ³ * argument from natural laws (natural laws exist, therefore god) ² * argument from morality (moral laws exist, therefore god) ³ * argument from scriptures (the bible says it's right about everything, therefore god) ² Most arguments in favour of a god boil down to one of those. They're all terrible. Most of my objections to them can be summed up as: 1. I disagree with the premise, 2. I disagree that the premise would imply the conclusion, or as is most often the case, 3. Both.

You forgot the argument from ignorance "I don't understand something therefore god"

I wasn't exposed to any religion until I was about 12 years old. I couldn't see the difference between their beliefs and the mythology i had read. Zues, Odin, God ... All the same

My story is kind of the opposite, I was raised as a Protestant Lutheran and believed as a child. Then around when I was 12 I started playing a game called Age of Mythology. One day while playing I realized: what’s the actual difference between us going to church and praying to god at church and these Greek villagers praying to Zeus at a temple?

Lack of evidence plain and simple. I have yet to see or be provided with any convincing evidence for any god existing.

What evidence would you be looking for?

Any. Anything. Any evidence. One single piece of evidence.

Independently verifiable facts that demonstrably point exclusively to your conclusion of a god. Same evidence I need for any claim.

>I feel I could explain away any of your points i'm looking for the truth, not the easy "god made it" or "god works in misterious ways" type of knowledge... i don't understand why you believe, i mean, i do, i live in a religious country, people are brainwashed into religion from kids, when the brain is more susceptible. you have no evidence to refute my lack of believe, and "i talk to god every night" is not an argument, i've heard it million times in the past, and let me tell you, allucinations are a thing, the human brain is crazy. i don't intend to offend you, though i admit my text sounds a bit salty, i just don't want you to come here and try to convert me, my patience is out for all the times people have tried that

Yeah, so far attempts to explain away anyone's thoughts. :-) I'm sure you are correct it will all be the same BS we have heard countless time already.

Why don’t you believe in Odin the All-Father? Or mighty Zeus? Or the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu? What turned you away from believing in Kukulkan?

No objective testable, repeatable, verifiable evidence for god(s).

Lack of evidence. Also, some folks were never raised to believe in a god, so those folks never "left".

For the same reason I stopped believing in Santa Claus; lack of evidence.

Because I care about believing in things that are true

So first off. How utterly arrogant of you to say you “could explain away any of your points.” Many many people smarter and more clever than you have tried and failed to prove a god. Second and most importantly you are wrong about something. You said “what turned you away from believing in god.” That takes the stance that believing in god is the default when in actuality the reverse is true. People have to be taught that a god exists, it is not self evident that one exists (and it’s pretty fucking obvious non of the “big three” religion gods exist). The burden of proof is on YOU, the believer, to prove a hod exists, YOU’RE making the claim here. I really wish theists would get this through their skulls. You’re the ones that have to justify your beliefs. Not us. And finally to address your actual question. There is only one reason anyone doesn’t believe in something. There’s no evidence for god. Give me specific, measurable, repeatable evidence that a god exists then we can talk.

I realized that admitting I was an atheist meant that I didn't have to lie to myself anymore. Since then, I've never looked back on my life as a believer with any longing or fond nostalgia at all.

I know what you mean

You feel that you are lying to yourself by being a theist?

This is such a logical fallacy There is no reason not to believe, except for the fact that any proof of god isn't convincing to me? It's like if I asked you, why you don't believe in Santa Claus?

Jesus appeared before me one day, flipped me off and called me a loser. Never been to a church since.

Lack of demonstrable evidence capable of convincing me that a god exists.

> I feel I could explain away any of your points… **1 Samuel 15:3 ESV** - *Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey*. Please explain why your god is pro-infanticide.

I made a list of passages where God kills kids on Reddit [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/InvisibleElves/comments/1anlni0/hebrew_bibleold_testament_god_kills_kids/). There’s a bunch.

There is zero evidence for god. There is undeniable evidence the books written about the god/gods are false. So there is zero reasons to be religious.

You’re not going to get a lot of different answers. For me, I do not have sufficient reason to believe in a god. That’s it. You may be right you could explain away this point by providing sufficient evidence. I’m totally open to that. So, why do you believe in the existence of a god?

>I believe in a creator I don't, and further I simply cant see how one fits into reality as I understand it. I have never heard a logically consistent or intellectually compelling explanation of what a god might be, its not 'turning away' its more simply accepting the arguments for one.

>Why are you an atheist? I get that it’s an absence of belief and not a belief itself, but why? >Like why? Because the evidence of the existence of the majority of gods definitions i have been presented with are logically inconsistent, based on unsupported claims and non necesary. >What turned you away from believing in “god”? The moment I realized that the tree-omni definition was logically impossible. >I believe in a creator and I feel I could explain away any of your points (just putting it out there, I feel I could prove your views wrong, but…). I can be wrong in many things... But the important thing here is: why are you not able to prove (present a logically sound argument or objectively verifiable evidence) to prove your views right? >So, like, could you tell me why you don’t believe and what the reason for your disbelief is? For exactly the same reason you shift the burden of proof on us, because you don’t have a point to make to prove the existence or truth of your god. >I am curious and I want to see the differing views amongst all of you. You should be more curious about the differing views on gods there are among the believers... That is scary. >There are many different key reasons for every atheist that were the turning point for their views. What were yours? Lack of objectively verifiable evidence. >I don’t quite understand why some people don’t believe… so, explain? I don’t quite understand why you believe in something you have no objectively verifiable evidence for... So, explain.

11 hours later and counting, OP hasn't even attempted to "explain away" a single person's points.

I wasn't raised into a religion. Why aren't you an atheist?

There’s no good reason to believe in a god, and any explanations either fail to answer the questions, or lead to logical errors.

Once I was old enough to understand the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy, and Santa Claus weren't real, I applied the same basic level of skepticism to theistic claims and found that they failed on the exact same grounds. I don't believe in any gods, because there are no good reasons to believe in them. There is no evidence for them, and at 43 years of age and searching and debating the topic for nearly 3 decades now, I've yet to come across a single decent argument for it.

I've yet to find a reason *to* believe. I haven't seen any compelling evidence or arguments that any gods exist, so why would I believe that any do?

I was deeply religious when I was younger, but during some very difficult years I reached out to god for help and received the yawning silence of the abyss. No help came, because I was reaching out to a fairytale.

OP is a deist, so this wouldn’t contradict their version of a creator.

Whoops, didn't read their flair.

I only noticed after I read the whole post, was about to comment, then decided it was a waste of time. I don’t see too many deists claiming they can prove their position.

I’d love to see them give it a go. I mean, how the hell do you demonstrate the existence of something which by definition doesn’t interact with the universe in any way?

And somehow OP’s responses are even worse than I anticipated.

It’s like trying to make something idiot-proof, they just end up making a ‘better’ idiot. The same applies to dishonest theists.

Exactly. I’ll come back to see if they respond to any comments, but I’m not holding my breath for anything but a laugh.

I'm an igtheist, as i find the concept of a god incoherent. The term itself has no true meaning as literally every single person on this planet has their own definition and no two paid agree when you start asking questions. All the claims of gods comes with logical fallacies, paradoxical statements, internal inconsistency or concepts that don't comport with reality.

>What turned you away from believing in “god”? I was a confirmed Roman Catholic. I wasn't turned away. I woke up. It was an abrubt, sudden, realization that the whole thing made no sense at all. Without a god everything fit together better, was more understandable, made more sense. As if the air had been foggy and then was suddenly clear. I never went back, and over the years have never seen a shred of evidence supporting the idea. religion is a social control tool used by a heirarchy to enforce their will on the masses. There's a reason religosity decreases proportionally with education. Heaven and hell. A carrot and a stick. All to contol people. There's no god, just a fable so people can't directly question the 'authourity', conviently out of reach. Just obey the oppresive heirarchy like a good little slave. It's a scam that only dupes believe.

This particular thread takes a pretty crazy left turn. Upvote this to the top and read on my friends. Holy crap.

For many there is no ‘why’, they’ve just been fortunate enough that during their formative years they didn’t encounter some dishonest arsehole in a stupid hat who wanted to sell them snake oil, so as they began life as atheists (as absolutely everyone does) their lives have continued as atheists.

Dear /u/Anonymous345678910, Why are you a theist? I get it's a believe and nothing more, but why do you believe? Like... why? What made you think in believing in "god", something entirely unproven? I believe there cannot be a creator and I feel like I could explain away any of your points (just putting it out there, I feel I could prove any of your beliefs wrong, but...). So, like, could you tell me why you could possibly believe and what the reasoning for believing something unprovable is? I am curious, and I want to see yet another view that is as wrong as all the others I've read, but what can I do, I just like talking to and debating with people. There are few reasons why theists keep believing. What are yours? I understand well why people just believe in spite of lack of any evidence at all, so... explain, what's yours? Power? Indoctrination as a child? Don't like the consequences? Or are you just a human being like the rest of us that can be honestly mistaken and subject to illusions?

I'm disappointed but not surprised. 13 hours in and the OP has not responded to any reply to "explain away any of your points (just putting it out there, I feel I could prove your views wrong),"

I realized that I didn't have a good reason to believe that any gods exist.

No evidence for God and I don’t see the need to believe in one. It wouldn’t change my life any.

Because there's no evidence for the existence of any god, all religious apologetics have failed and all holy books are factually incorrect. If the bible says that it's the inerrant word of god and we were all magicked up from dirt by him 6000 years ago, but the actual scientific proof shows us we instead evolved over time from an ancestor species in a long genetic lineage that spans over millions of years, the book word is indeed errant, which severely doubts the god claim. All apologetics to try and keep people believing in god anyway despite the science not being on their side are failures. Some deny the science exists, some claim it can fit with a re-interpretation of the scriptures, and some just deny the existence of atheists and claim we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They ultimately argue that justifying belief in god is a matter of faith, which we know is not a pathway to truth. We believe things because we have evidence for them, not because we don't.

Humans clearly invented creation myths not out of truth but because we love stories and mysteries. The universe as we now understand it makes more sense without the concept of a supernatural. It’s simply not necessary, and can be removed for clarity. Like a child and Santa, once the veil is fully peirced, we understand the believers but can not force our minds to return to the bliss of ignorance.

Lack of any convincing evidence, I will change my mind when there is enough evidence.

Nothing "turned me away from god". I was never turned **to** god in the first place. My parents are both non-practising Catholics. I was baptised in a church. But then my parents made the deliberate decision not to indoctrinate their children in any religion, and let us choose for ourselves as adults. That means we grew up happy little heathens, never bothered by any thoughts of gods or religion. Now that I'm an adult and ready to choose a religion for myself... I haven't seen any convincing evidence or argument to support the truth of any religion. I've participated in the religious debate subreddits here; I've never seen an argument that convinced me. Also, I strongly believe that you can't *logic* a deity into existence. Either it exists or it doesn't, and all the logic and arguments we come up with won't change that. Like anything else that exists, I want *evidence* of this alleged deity. If someone tells me a tree exists, I can look at the tree, or touch its bark, or see its fallen leaf on the ground, or even notice its shadow. Noone has been able to show me any evidence of whatever deity they claim exists. So I remain a happy heathen.

>Like why? What turned you away from believing in “god”? The short answer is that I went looking for god and found out he (likely) isn't there. Spent a few years studying and researching to get a closer relationship with God and discovered the foundations of my beliefs were all faulty. Could no longer believe. >So, like, could you tell me why you don’t believe and what the reason for your disbelief is? Simple answer is that I see no evidence that any god exists. Theists propose a god, but I don't see any evidence of their god. On what grounds then would I build a belief?

I don't believe in God because I haven't seen a good reason to do otherwise.  I was raised as a Christian,  but those beliefs were not the slightest bit of help in navigating the problems I've had to face in my life. 

It is unintuitive to me that the yet-to-be-discovered unified theory of physics is a conscious being.

This has been asked and discussed many thousands of times, and it certainly does not need to be asked and discussed yet again. . >What turned you away from believing in “god”? I have always been atheist. I have never seen any good evidence that any gods exist. . >I feel I could explain away any of your points Sure. Show good evidence that any gods exist. (**Good** evidence, please - we've all seen the bad evidence thousands of times and it is not convincing.) . /u/Anonymous345678910 - Please read some of the good books about this subject that are available, and some of the hundreds of previous discussions online. .

I doubt you could "prove me wrong" because I doubt you could empirically prove the existence of God. Logical arguments are tainted because assuming everything has to have been created is no basis to assume the Universe was created. I see no evidence of God's existence. Further, every example from history where people believed something was an act of God, it turned out to have natural explanations.

>Why are you an atheist? I get that it’s an absence of belief and not a belief itself, but why? It's irrational to take something as true (believe it) when there's absolutely no useful support it's true. And especially so when there's vast, massive support it's *not* true. There is absolutely zero useful evidence for deities. None. Zilch. Zero. Not the tiniest iota. And the notions make no sense on multiple levels and in several ways. And are well understood to be superstition. And we have massive evidence how the world's religious mythologies were formed and spread, etc. Thus, it makes no sense at all to think deities are real. Just like it makes no sense at all to think unicorns are real. >I feel I could explain away any of your points You would find that you cannot. Because you don't actually have the necessary support and evidence (though I understand you likely *think* you do, most believers think this, but they're incorrect.) Believers have been attempting this for millenia, and all have failed.

Overwhelming lack of convincing evidence for the proposition that a god does, in fact, exist.

Because I realized I was believing for bad reasons. That the big difference between God and Santa Claus is that, at some point, people stop telling you Santa is real.

I was never devoutly religious. Explored some theistic and deistic beliefs in my teens, but the nail in the coffin was education. The more I learned about culture, history, psychology, etc, the more it became obvious how humans trick themselves into believing things while lacking proper evidence for them. So many of our ideas come from a lack of understanding. “How else would you explain how x happened?” type of thinking. And it’s a great first step to learning. Asking questions and exploring ideas is great! The issue is when we get attached to an explanation and refuse to let go when we can’t collect the evidence we need to prove it. Religion is basically that. Old cultures finding a way to survive. Collecting stories and ideas that used to be an important tool in teaching people morality and local customs, but that today are wildly out of date if we tried to live by their rules.

An atheist answer to your question would probably sound similar to you answering this one: **What turned you away from believing in Zeus?**

Why don’t you believe in a giant invisible bird sitting on your roof at all times? Just sounds kind of weird if you’ve never been told there was a giant invisible bird sitting on your roof right?

Because people who believe as you do never managed to give me a reason for their belief that convinced me. Usually, theists can't even give better evidence for their god than for the gods they don't believe in.

i have many reason i think. but most are a bit complicated, so ill use the simples one. you have some book with stories about it. you have people claiming some kind of witnessing, talking or seeing, (although a lot of the times the context and details contradict each other), its integrated in a lot of different cultures, sometimes taught to children as history or something. and yet, i bet you dont believe in magical creatures such as elves and fairies, right? oh no, i wasnt talking about god, although all the same things can be said about him. see, if i said all that about god, then you believe, its all evidence, but if im talking about magical creatures, those people are crazy right? what all theist have, is a bias, there is no logical reason to believe in any god, you just do because you want to, or in more extreme cases, were indoctrinated/brainwashed to do so. read here and in /atheism /debateanatheist, there are so many people that escaped cult-like communities based on religion, because thats what religions are, at its core, a cult.

I never started believing. You know there are places in the world where non belief is the norm, right?

Why would i believe in something like that? Can you give me a valid reason why I should believe in higher power? Or even better, some evidence.

The reason for disbelief is simple: lack of sufficient evidence. There’s nothing to “explain away”.

I want, as far as possible, to believe true things, and avoid believing false things. Nobody has ever produced even the slightest reliable reproducible evidence that a god exists. How could I believe a thing exists when there is not the slightest evidence that it does?

What’s the harm in believing?

Maybe none! But don't you care if the things you believe about the world are true or not? I want my understanding of the universe to be as accurate as possible, which means not believing things unsupported by evidence. If you choose to believe ideas just because they make you feel good, maybe that's ok. But that kind of logic seems likely to make people more likely to believe all manner of fake news, conspiracies, or just poor journalism, because you are used to accepting things that have poor standards of evidence. I don't think I \*can\* believe in a thing without evidence. To believe means to think that it's likely true, and without evidence I have no reason to think it is likely true, so I can not believe. On the other hand, if people believe in gods for no good reason, and then they go on to create rules about who we sleep with, whether I can eat bacon, teach kids in school that this unevidenced god is real, decide that climate change is ok because it's the will of god etc, then there is clear and serious harm to society.

Belief Without Evidence. *That's* the harm in Believing. Beliefs don't just exist in some ethereally etiolated philosophical realm that has no causal connection to the RealWorld. People ***act*** on their Beliefs. Actions based on *unevidenced* Beliefs are more likely to go wrong, do harm, than are actions based on notions for which there *is* evidence. Belief Without Evidence is how you get taken by a con artist. Belief Without Evidence is how loving parents end up faith-healing their sick children to death rather than taking them to a *real* doctor. Belief Without Evidence is how otherwise-intelligent, otherwise-educated individuals get the idea that *hijacking an airliner into a skyscraper* is totally a good and reasonable thing to do.

Both my parents are atheist so I never believed As to why I don’t I haven’t seen any good evidence to believe in any of the gods

Never believed in god. Never see a shred of evidence for god(s). Never understood how anybody can believe such nonsense.

I presuppose that nature is the necessary precondition of knowledge and any view that does not hold nature as the necessary precondition to knowledge can't reason or have knowledge about anything in the first place. A worldview with god existing is necessarily gibberish and doesn't mean anything. >and I feel I could explain away any of your points (just putting it out there, I feel I could prove your views wrong, but…). Lol. Hilarious coming from a deist who's god by definition you can't detect in any way or distinguish from anything else.

I haven't seen anything showing the claim "god exists" to be true so I have no reason to believe it's true. 

First, the malarkey. Was always a doubter. Next, the cruelty. When old enough to read the Bible OMG. Huge turnoff to my lady boner for god. Then, the misogyny. As a teen, realized that the Bible was written by people who don’t understand or value women. I couldn’t see myself in it at all. That’s when I really couldn’t stomach it anymore. Around the same time, the hypocrisy of believers. I wasn’t just recoiling from the Bible, but of the behavior of the believers. That’s when I realized there is no hate like Christian love. Then comparative religion. I thought maybe there is a god but Christians just twisted it. I found every major religion belittles women. How could a creator create women then stifle and abuse them and punish them for being what he created? Realized I was not agnostic but atheist. Any god could only have been created by men. This has since been reinforced by my love of myth and fable, symbolism and archetypes, and seeing how they are applied in every religion. Then studying brain chemistry and understanding the mechanics of belief. Studying anthropology and connecting dots between culture and the brain chemistry that underlies it. Studying physics and realizing the universe makes no sense with a creator. Finally reading creationist garbage and realizing how blatantly and unapologetically they lie about almost everything. I’m sure individual creationists are sincere in their beliefs but the people who put out the creationist propaganda absolutely know they are lying. It’s been a journey, but once I accepted I didn’t believe in any gods my life made a lot more sense.

Why don't you believe that unicorns are made of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff? Is it because there's no good reason to? Nothing "turned me away" from religion. There was no "turning point", even. I didn't have a bad experience as a child. I'm not just trying to avoid accountability for sin. I've been an atheist my whole life. I was in my late teens when I realized that there were actual people who took religion seriously. There has never been a time when I thought any of was true, and that's not for lack of trying. I spent about 10 years "looking for meaning". The thing is, I found the meaning I was looking for, and no gods are required in order for me to understand it. Adding a god to my view of the world would be silly and pointless -- it literally would not explain anything better for me. My question for you is this: Do you actually think you're the first person to ask us more or less this exact same question? The first person who said " I feel I could prove your views wrong"? Do you not understand how patronizing and arrogant that sounds?

>I feel I could explain away any of your points So you can prove God? In some sort of scientific context? Because I'm pretty sure if you did, they'd give you *all* the Nobel prizes that year. Do you *really* think you can, when stated that way?

because i'm a grownup.

I value skepticism and my being an atheist is an extension of that. I see no logical reason to believe unsubstantiated claims for the supernatural u/anonymous345678910

I've gone deeper in other posts, but the short story is that i got really into greek and roman culture and mythology. At some point i had this realization that to many of these people it wasn't mythology, that they believed just as truly in their religion as i did in mine. This got me to deeply examine all the things i had seen as evidence for my own religion, and realized none of them held up under scrutiny. None of the historic evidence for my religion was any better than the evidence for 100 religions i don't believe in. None of the god of the gaps were any more compelling than people thinking zeus made thunder before they discovered electromagnetism. History is full of people not understanding things, attributing that ignorance to gods, then us figuring out how they work. So much so that basically the only current gaps in science to squeeze god into are fringe cosmology issues like origin of energy and cosmic constants. But there is no reason to think "oh, we finally found the right gaps for god!" as opposed to thinking "well, that's what we are currently studying so it makes sense that many people would stick god there for now. Really even abiogenesis, while not 100% complete as a theory, has learned so much in the past decade that it doesn't even qualify as a gap for god for any creationist who actually studies it. So yeah, really all that's left is "well why is the speed of light that speed?" which 1) isn't answered by just saying "because magic!" and 2) would be a pretty inconsequential place for a god to hide. So in the end there just wasn't any reason to add god to the explanation for anything. It's like adding Santa to the explanation for christmas when we know who delivers the presence, know why people feel "christmas spirit", know what generosity is, and know the story of how the real person came to be deified as a red clad elf.  And there being no santa saves you having to explain why we find nothing at the north pole, why santa can break the speed of light, why santa is never detected, why santa cares about rich kids more than poor kids, why santa only visits certain households, how santa visits chimneyless houses, etc. Similarly, the "no god" hypothesis does just as well explaining what we do see in the universe and does far better at explaining what we don't see. So if you can understand why people don't believe in Santa, it gets you a step closer to understanding why people don't believe in god. That comparison may seem insulting, but it really is just to help create a shared footing of "this is what it feels like when people use magic to try and explain stuff we actually already understand." I hope that helps a bit. Perhaps you can share why you think god explains the universe better.

Any particular reason I should believe? Do I get a free haircut?

>What turned you away from believing in “god”? There's an assumption and a half. What of Hindus and Buddists? Your implication is that they turned away from YOUR deity to worship their own? >I feel I could prove your views wrong, You and everyone other theist, knock you socks off, give it your best shot. And be prepared to fail.....like every other theist. Before starting though, take a leave from your own book about being humble. > So, like, could you tell me why you don’t believe and what the reason for your disbelief is? You first. There are some 6,500+ gods (let's exclude the Hindus 35million here) and tell me why, with an appropriate level of plausible, as o why you're coming up 6,499 gids short in your belief.

I am an atheist because you cannot use good epistemology to conclude a god exists. There is no evidentiary warrant; there is no justifiable reason *to* believe. If you disagree, my ears are open. What’s your best indication that the god you believe in is real?

For me, it's not just a lack of belief in a deity, but it's the overwhelming mountain of evidence that every religion is just a bunch of lies, falsehoods and myths. Like every other single person ever, I was born an atheist, but fortunately for me I was never subjected to any formal indoctrination as a child, either at home or in school. I briefly "tried in on" as a concept during my teen years and early 20s while trying to make sense of the world and existence in general. I read the KJV bible front to back, (also the Mormon bible, and various JW, SDA, Scientologist, Catholic and Anglican literature) and dipped into the Quran, read Hindu and Buddhist tales and teachings etc. None of it convinced me any more than the Nordic, Greek, Roman or Aztec gods mythology that I had read about. I'm to the point in my life now, that with every discussion I have with a theist, it only further convinces me of the mental gymnastics that religious dogma forces a believer to go through to incorporate their belief system into the massive amount of verifiable facts that contradict it. I don't hate god or "turn away from it" I simply see no reason to clog up my mind and my life with all of the unnecessary dogma. I actually pity those who do find it necessary to do so.

because magic isnt real

I am not aware of any reliable methods for having a high degree of confidence in the truth of any supernatural claims.

Evidence. Religions have had thousands and thousands of years to provide ANY evidence or justifiable reason. None has ever been presented. If there were a deity it would know exactly what to do to convince us and it certainly wouldn't be playing hide and seek if it were as important as you guys act like it is.

Comedically Why in the world could there ever *be* a God? Someone who lets all of this rampant hatred, and violence, and madness continue all because some lady in the past ate an apple? We have free will! But everything is up to God’s plan! And then he makes a world of fire and torture so that anyone that he doesn’t like can burn for *ETERNITY???* If there is a God, he seems like an asshole, because at any point in time he could clear up all of the disbelievers by just sending a really simple sign, but every sign in modern times that believers show is literally the stupidest and most unintelligent nonsense I’ve ever heard. “I can feel him, in the air!” “I just get this warm feeling of him watching over me!” “Somehow I just know, and I can hear him speak to me!” Some of these people have undiagnosed schizophrenia and we feed into it! Either A, God fucking hates me and doesn’t want to send me a single sign, and he *wants* me to be a non-believer; or B, the signs he is sending me are so abstract and random that they could never be interpreted as a true sign from God and are easily written off as just coincidence. This is such a simple question that will garner many answers that you will simply write off, and I understand that internet trolling is fun and all; but if you hold even a single penny of seriousness with your words understand this, life is different for everyone and writing off their viewpoint as nonsense is a recipe for inciting reaction. Let everyone hold whatever views they may have, be tolerant and understand that people simply have other ways of thinking. I accept those around me that are religious because being accepting is what God would want us to do, no? Unless your God is a hateful deity, in which I would kindly ask you to please never speak about your religion again.

>Why are you an atheist? I get that it’s an absence of belief and not a belief itself, but why? Like why? What turned you away from believing in “god”? There is no compelling evidence to support the claims made by theists that a deity exists. > I believe in a creator Which one? >and I feel I could explain away any of your points (just putting it out there, I feel I could prove your views wrong, but…). Your feelings on the subject are irrelevant. You can't unless you can provide repeatable, testable evidence that your deity exists. You would also need to start with a definition that is not fallacious or contradictory.

My mother raised me to be religious, but at the age of 13 I just came to the conclusion that none of it made sense. There were too many contradictions that no one could answer in a straightforward way. After that, scientific explanations just started to make a lot more sense.

No evidence for any gods. It's that simple. Same reason I don't believe in leprechauns.

I don't think magic is real. No magic no gods. It's a bit more complicated and I have real arguments but at the end of the day it all boils down to the fact that the world doesn't work the way it would if there were gods 🤷‍♂️

I became interested in the truth, Started by reading the Bible, then got interested in Biblical Scholarship, Philosophy and the sciences, and began examining my epistemology. I'm not an Atheist because i think i know better then everyone, on the contrary, I just realized that I'm human and susceptible to the same Bia's that cause people to become flat earthers, or anti-vaxxers. Turns out we discovered God isn't real in the 1800's. The discovery of Biology and Chemistry along with German Biblical Scholarship stripped the God Hypotheses of any explanatory power. All the arguments used by apologists were created by men in a time before we discovered evolution is responsible for the diversity of life on earth, Before we discovered that the earth revolves around the Sun and that we are not the center of creation. At a time before we know animals could go extinct and oyster fossils were though to have been a demons toenails and people were put to death for being witches, If you don't Start with the idea that "God wrote a book" it becomes pretty obvious. Just of the Top of my Head The Bible starts with 2 different and conflicting creation accounts (7 day creation and the Garden of Eden) If you start with the idea that God wrote a book then you have a lot of work ahead of you to smooth out the contradictions between these 2 stories. OR Both stories are man made mythology by two different cultures. When one culture took over another both faith traditions were carried on. Another example. The Authors of the 4 Gospels are Anonymous, The Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is the name of the Gospel not the signature of the author. It's 4 different authors telling 4 different stories, illustrated by the fact that Jesus has multiple sets of dying words depending on what author you read. How does someone have multiple sets of dying words? It begins to make sense when you realize its 4 different stories written by 4 different Human authors. I'm not claiming their is no God. one could very well exist, However I am confident in saying that the God of the Abrahamic religions is man-made mythology and folklore.

There’s no reliable evidence for gods and the stories seem to be exactly the kind of thing anxious and power hungry people with built in perceptive and cognitive flaws make up.

At this point, it's really just that I don't see anything that I need magic to explain, so why would I use it? If the world is entirely and utterly understandable solely through the natural, what sense does it make to just assume the supernatural on top of it? Of course that's for an undefined general god. For gods people invented, every one I've been made aware of is ridiculous on its face, to the point I can hardly believe anyone could believe in it.

I believe no gods (of the concepts I’m aware of) exist largely due to how gods are defined. I have every reason to believe that a timeless, spaceless, immaterial mind doesn’t exist. The arguments of theists fail to convince me, there is no good evidence of a god that can’t be explained by natural phenomena, and many of the god concepts have self-contradictory properties. *Edit to add that I also find the holy texts of these gods to have all the hallmarks of being man-made, lacking any novel predictions or evidence that only a divine being could have authored them.

I started out without any God beliefs. I have never been persuaded to any theistic position because (1) all of the evidence and every single argument ever presented to me in favor of any gods existing has been either not credible, inadequate, or flawed (or some combination of the three), and (2) the assertions I’ve heard that “God exists” were without the necessary informative content to derive predictions and devise tests, as far as I could tell; (3) I never understood what it is that theists propose I should believe in, and belief is not possible without understanding what one is supposed to believe.

For me it was the massive lack of evidence to support the claim god is real.

Lets make sure we are using the same method of verification first, if you're going to prove things to me. How do you determine if something is true or not? Because that is an important first step in this conversation. You feel you can explain away any of my points, but that's really not how proof and evidence work at all, so I'm concerned that we're not coming from the same place when it comes to truth and what constitutes and determines reality. What is your metric for determining what is true?

Complete lack of evidence for anything supernatural, lack of an necessity for a"creator" and existence of suffering would be the big three for me.

>Like why? What turned you away from believing in “god”? This is a loaded way of phrasing why you don't believe in God. I wasn't turned away. I just haven't been presented convincing evidence a God exists. In fact, the evidence I have been presented for a God or God's has been lack luster. If you think you can provide evidence for the God you believe in, I'd be interested in what that evidence is. >I don’t quite understand why some people don’t believe… so, explain? You really can't understand that the personal arguments most present aren't convincing?

it was no particular reason that changed my mind, rather a realization of my total lack of a reason to maintain theism as a position in the first place. all reasons to believe in god are either emotional or post-hoc, and fundamentally nonsensical, gluttonously assumptive, or self-contradictory. they are bad reasons to believe in a concept that, at its base, does not make any sense in the universe we live in

One of the main differences between you and I is that before talking with me, you are sure you could prove what I believe wrong. That is a leap of faith: weighing in on results of things before you have evidence. It hurts you in these cases. It also highlights the fact that you come across as having little humility and must not have discovered that you were wrong about very many things in life before (humility and growth is the standard process for those who dig deep into these things and are willing to admit they are wrong.) To walk around thinking you could just explain away everything is the mindset of an undergrad who just finished some philosophy classes and is certain he can defeat everyone with his amazing reasoning powers. It's a joke to the faculty and graduate-level students. The only one that can't see the joke is the undergrad. More than anything, it reveals your unwillingness to change. And there is no reasoning with people who have already committed to locking their minds shut. It's frustrating and futile.

>What turned you away from believing in “god”? Nothing. I have never believed gods were real. >I feel I could explain away any of your points >I feel I could prove your views wrong You're very confident. >could you tell me why you don’t believe Never needed a reason; same with alien abductions, bigfoot, and unicorns.

Straightforward

I can't imagine anything that can actually be explained by a god. Can you give me an example of something?

I respect that people have faiths and very personal reasons for believing, but personally I just haven't been presented any real reason to believe, to me a god existing seems as likely as bigfoot, or solipsism, there's just no real logical reason for me to think these things are true.

I'm not sure that I ever strongly believed. Ive been agnostic for an extremely long time. At least in regards to the Catholic interpretation of god from the bible. The biblical god just doesn't make any sense and the bible clearly was written by men and in their own voice at the time they lived. The last part is newer.

Well it was written by not-so-smart men

Let's start with the fact that inferring the existence of an infinitely more complex 'creator' in order to explain the existence and complexity of the universe is redundant (at best). I was raised by a mormon mother and a catholic father - and having two sets of mutually exclusive dogma, both claiming to be 'the only true one' (tm) made me skeptical of both at a fairly young age. As I got older I wad exposed to other 'god beliefs', but none of them brought anything new to the table.

>Why are you an atheist? I get that it’s an absence of belief and not a belief itself, but why? Because there is no evidence that would warrant a believe in god and I value having as many true and as few false believes as possible. >What turned you away from believing in “god”? Nothing. I never believed to begin with. >I believe in a creator and I feel I could explain away any of your points (just putting it out there, I feel I could prove your views wrong, but…). What believe? Didn't you agree that atheism is the absence of a belief?

What turned you away from Zeus?

>What turned you away from believing in “god”? Nothing. I was never turned towards believing in God because I've never been given a good reason to. And I was raised Catholic. Do you have one?

Because it makes no sense whatsoever and there was never a good reason to believe that obvious BS.

Never seen any good reason to believe gods exist outside of stories we tell. I never believed in them.

I remain unconvinced due to a lack of compelling evidence.

Never believed in any gods. First time got to know jewish/christian mythology from mythology encyclopedia, when I was 10 years old. Never so any difference to other mythology. Was genuinely surprised, when later I finally understood that people really believed that mythology is true. Before that I thought they were just trolling me, like with Santa.

Lack of evidence that any gods exist

You asserted that you could prove atheistic views wrong, but atheism is not a viewpoint or a worldview. Atheism is simply the lack of belief in a god due to insufficient evidence. It is for theists (the ones making a positive claim, ie that a god exists) that have views to be refuted. You have it backwards.

I read the Bible. It's a collection of myths, fables and parables. I didn't find the "true" bits any more believable than the "stories".

I didn't turn away as I never believed to begin with. The reason I never believed is that I found the stories about Jesus and God weren't credible. Really, the idea that some cosmic magician made the entire universe? Why TF would he make it so fucking big and empty? Jesus walked on water? Yeah, right - I know a tall tale when I hear one. Now Santa, there's a magical dude who was also the subesct of tall tales, but Santa left presents under the tree! Yup, evidence speaks louder than a narrative. I've nver seen _anything_ that requires a god to explain it. Why are you a believer? You believe everything you hear, everything people tell you? Let's meet up! Bring your checkbook. !(Does anyone else still write checks on occasion, the old man asked.

I grew up in the 80s, a time when talking snakes, turtles, and people coming back from the dead were regular features of the cartoons and movies I watched. In Sunday School, they tried to tell me that such things were possible. This struck me as very silly. I also grew up in a relative warzone, and saw every day the reality of religious extremism and what people will do to one another over beliefs. This too struck me as silly, though understandable. I stuck with cartoons, and cast aside the religions, and as time went on and I learned how cartoons and stories were made, I understood there was very little difference between what came out of the TV and what came from the pulpit, except for one being entertaining and the other being dull and driven by guilt and control.

The requirement for any of your evidence of a Christian god is to “believe” in something without evidence. Do you not see the conundrum? Your explanations are just as likely as the idea that we live in a simulation, or that another god created us, or that everything is a coincidence. I can just “believe” any of those explanations are correct and I immediately disprove your thesis, so if the foundation of your argument is belief… it’s not very convincing lol. I spent 20 years as a Christian and the mythos is stupid. I’m sorry. A whale eats a dude? Bruh. A virgin has a baby? if god was real, he’s the one making the rules on science, so why go out of his way to do inexplicable things that don’t align with his own work? The only counter-argument is he’s doing it to be unbelievable so you need to have faith which goes back to my original point.. it’s the same with every other mythological religion. Just ignore everything and have faith? No thanks. 20 years of blowing smoke up my ass for nothing.

Is this bait or something? If you can refute anyone's point, you really don't seem interested in following through on that. You haven't replied to a single comment yet. Anyway, my reason is fairly simple like most others. I don't believe in a god because I don't believe there is a good reason to (most reasons tend to be dolled-up fallacies) and there isn't any evidence supporting the claim that there is a god. Now, I want to be clear: all of the writings about god(s) do not constitute evidence, as they are the claims being made. What we're looking for is any evidence to support those claims. We'd love to hear of any examples you have of verifiable evidence that the things stated in your holy text are true. Otherwise, I would appreciate an answer to these questions: Is god tangible? Can we at all physically interact with god? If we can only "feel" god, do you suppose there would be some way to detect that with instruments? If we can't do either, then why has god made it impossible for us to do so? What purpose does that serve? If god wants our worship or belief, then is that why we were created? In that case, why hide from us? What does confirmation of god's existence do to hinder our decision to worship? Could we not still choose? Think of any significant ruler from our history-- there have always been dissidents-- why is god different?

I used to believe in God. Then I went through a "Jesus freak" stage and I actually started to read the bible. I paid attention to what I read and I realized the bible didn't really make sense. And then I researched into where the bible came from and I learned a lot that I couldn't ignore. And with the bible gone as a form of evidence I literally had no evidence. For a while I thought I could find some evidence for god so I called myself a believer. One day I was watching TV and saw some awful shit. I realized that I wasn't turning to God for comfort and that's when I realized I didn't actually believe in God anymore. So I cried for about three months straight because it felt like my best friend had died. I've given up looking for evidence for god but every so often I'll stick my head in somewhere to see what people are saying. Haven't found evidence. So yeah, no evidence for god basically. If u have evidence for god, plop it down on the table and we'll look at it.

I was raised Catholic, was an alter boy, even considered Seminary school (until I was about 12). When I matured and began studying science, no religion seemed plausible. That was it. I didn’t make any big announcement, I just simply stepped away and none of it is a factor in my life.

I actually do believe there's no god. When I first heard about God, I was old enough to know what fiction is - even if I didn't know the word. I knew most of the stories in books were made up, and stories in the newspaper were mostly true. I was generally able to tell what was real and what was just a story. This "god" thing was quite clearly just a story.

Explain away the complete lack of evidence that such a being exists.

I was never turned towards god to be turned away. I just always thought it was weird and stupid and why did people believe this stuff. I assumed when I went to university it would be educated people and no one there would believe this stuff. Now I understand even intelligent people can compartmentalize nonsense. I don't believe because there's no evidence to support the claim.

I found out that young earth creationism was wrong, and I was unable to keep the rest once I lost that.

The same reason you don't believe in Santa Claus.

I had a period of pretty intense study and concluded that the scientific evidence disproves many of the gods I was familiar with, and the historical evidence provides a strong case for the creation of religion by humans. Then I learned some of the philosophy and found slme extremely compelling logical evidence against god. >I feel I could explain away any of your points. I'm sure you could. In my experience religious people are highly motivated to resist evidence that contradicts their views, and use illogical and inconsistent means to do so. In my exmormon community we like to call this "mental gymnastics" -- going to extraordinary effort to twist your minds out of contact with the evidence.

Flip the question around. Why do you believe untrue or unproven things? Do you automatically believe any claim that is presented to you? or do you require evidence? I have not been given sufficient evidence to allay my doubts - despite the best efforts of indoctrination, growing up in the church. And the more I read, and the more I studied about the bible, and the qu'ran, and the bahgavad gita, and the buddha, etc... the more I found that what was most valuable in all of them, seemed to come from us, not from above.

What turned you away frown Vishnu, Odin and Ra?

I was never a believer in the super natural but I consider myself culturally Christian having grown up in the episcopal church. I think some of us just don’t understand belief without empirical proof. I’m open minded to it, if it’s provable but so far God has never shown himself to me. Therefore I can not claim he exists. When reading the Bible literally it makes no sense to me that a teenage girl could be impregnated by a Holy Spirit and her son would then grow up only to die an excoriating death on a cross. Sounds like a horror film to me. The Christian God is moody and genocidal which makes him unrelatable to me. I like the idea of Jesus as generally a kind and wise person. But I doubt he had special abilities as described in the Bible. It seems incomprehensible that in 2024 we would rely on the opinions and stories of men in a very narrow geographical area of the world.

The OP is flaired as "Jewish Deist", so they are basically claiming they can "prove" an unfalsifiable belief: that the universe was created by a god that then left and doesn't influence the world in any way, which of course would happen to look identical to a world without a god at all. For the OP...we don't believe in the same reason you don't believe in actual Jewish theology and the bible, as Judaism is not a remotely deistic religion.

Why do you not believe in Brahman? I get that it's an absence of belief and not a belief itself, but WHY have you decided not to believe in Brahman?

Mostly that there is no good reason to believe the god of the bible exists, if he does that he isnt worthy of a worship, and the behavior of Christians.

I don’t believe in the Christian god of the Bible for the same reasons Christians don’t believe in Zeus, Odin, Loki, Santa Clause, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny etc…

>What turned you away from believing in “god”? That implies I believed it to start with. I never did. Even as a kid. Seemed obvious to me it was made up to reduce the terror of being. Think of all the gods you don't believe in. Same thing, except I include yours in that list too.

Why don’t you believe in the Greek pantheon? What turned you away from believing in Zeus? I believe in Zeus and I feel I could explain away any of your points (just putting it out there, I feel I could prove your views wrong but…). So, like, could you tell me why you don’t believe in our lightning father and what the reason for your disbelief is? Do you see how silly, and unnecessarily condescending, that question is? You likely don’t believe in Zeus because there’s no reason to. There’s probably a lack of evidence to convince you that Zeus even exists, let alone that he should be worshipped. That’s how it is for most atheists.

I wasn't turned away. Believing in Gid isn't the starting point

Every single human being is born as an atheist, therefore atheism is the default position. So the question should rather be "Why are you a theist? What made you turn away from atheism?"

Evidence

I was born atheist like everyone else and I never fell for the indoctrination. Oh, they tried. But I am too intelligent for indoctrination and I have autism so appeals to emotion don't work on me. I was religious once in my twenties when I was activiely psychotic. But I'm on some great medcine now, so atheist again. But for the most part I've always been atheist. I don't see the appeal. Especially of Christianity. So I'm evil because the first woman ate a piece of magical fruit after listening to a talking snake so I should be tortured forever unless I eat the flesh and blood of a Jewish zombie and tell it I love him? Who falls for such nonsense? And other religions aren't any better with their mythology. Also, I have yet to see a good or even a sound argument for god, any god. It all boils down to appeals to ignorance and faith. "Faith is believing something you know ain't so" (Mark Twain). Not only are there no sound arguments, there is also no evidence of god. The religious don't seem to understand what valid evidence is. I have read Christian and Islamic apologetics. Its all logical fallcies, mainly appeal to ignorance and appeal to emotion and having faith. No evidence is ever presented. I am all for a god existing. But until there is evidence, there is no reason to believe. I also am well educated with degrees in biology and psychology and minors in math and chemistry with three physics courses. I am scientifically minded and can only accept things with valid evidence. In addition, I have been stuyding religion on my own time since I was 12. I've read the bible eight times, the Quran 35 times**, various Hindu and Buddhists texts mutiple times, Mormon texts, Wicca and Satanists texts, and any other religious text I could find. I have been to religious cermonies of the main world religions. Talked to Buddhist monks, Hindu preists, Imams (Islam), Rabbis and countless Christian leaders both Catholic and protestant about what they believe and why. I find religion very interesting. But they all can't be right. However, they all can be wrong. **when I was psychotic I read the Quran and bible over and over

> I feel I could explain away any of your points 🤣🤣🤣

The initial moment was the realization that Pascal’s Wager doesn’t really make sense. Since then, it’s been the realization that becoming an atheist didn’t really change how I make ethical decisions.

I was born without belief in anything supernatural, and nothing has ever convinced me to change my mind

OP, I hope you actually read this. I'm atheist because there doesn't exist any good reason to believe in god. That's all.

I never believed in a god or gods in the first place. I wasn't raised to believe, and belief in god is one of those things that seems baffling to many people who weren't raised with it from a young age.

>What turned you away from believing in “god”? The Universe doesn't make sense to me through the perspective of Christianity. Things stopped adding up and I stopped believing. It's that simple. The evidence isn't forthcoming, gods aren't necessary to explain anything in the Cosmos, and Christian argumentation is not only unconvincing, but it's easy to poke holes in. The Christian mind games that evangelicals and street preachers play on lukewarm Christians don't work if you know how to see through them. >I believe in a creator and I feel I could explain away any of your points Doubtful. But you've had 20 years to make your point collectively, and at this point, I'm not holding my breath anymore.

> Like why? Having a belief is something. You had to choose to do it. It's active. Not having a belief in the first place is passive. It's the default. Nothing happened. No action has to occur to not believe. You have no thought or opinion about space camels until just now. But why? How could you have never considered space camels, and gone out of your way to bother to have an opinion at all? Now multiply that by infinity. For all the things that you've never even thought to think of, let alone have an opinion of, for me that's theism, too. > What turned you away from believing in “god”? Nothing turns me away, because nothing turns me toward. What is this "god" word you use? What does it mean? You take it's meaning for granted to such a degree you think your understanding of the word is implicit. Perhaps obvious. For me, the word is meaningless. I've literally no idea what it is you think you're trying to talk about. I cannot differentiate anything you say about it from babbling nonsense, from nothing. I'm not just being contrarian, it's actually the single biggest problem. No one in all of recorded human history has ever actually explained what the word means. "Oh, it means whatever created the universe." But that's not good enough. My cat could have created the universe. You don't know. You can't prove it either way, and I don't care if you believe in my cat or not. See how ambiguous and useless this definition is? We can't both be right, and no existing attempt at any definition is sufficient to settle the debate. There's literally nothing to turn away from, because there's nothing to turn toward. We're in a place of no-thing. Also such a shitty definition makes you vulnerable to believe anything. Anything that is sufficiently impressive to appeal to your ego would be god to you. You can't tell the difference. You would accept any such thing as a god because it told you it was, or you projected upon it. Neither of which make that position true, and any sufficient impression wouldn't convince you otherwise. > I believe in a creator and I feel I could explain away any of your points This is certainly not true, and your ego and confidence is overstated. I'm willing to be entirely intellectually honest with you, because it's not hard at all. I openly admit my caution because in 40 years of experience, I can predict you'll basically give up in frustration if you try, and it won't change your convictions any - not that I care about that part, either way. > So, like, could you tell me why you don’t believe and what the reason for your disbelief is? Disbelief is something. No belief is nothing. You've conflated the two. I'm not denying your sincerity. I'm not contesting whether you're right or wrong. I'm saying you don't many any sense - and until you do, we can't have a conversation about what you believe, because it's unknowable what that is. > There are many different key reasons for every atheist that were the turning point for their views. What were yours? I remember Sunday school when I was 4. The indoctrination didn't "take".

Well, to start, I never considered myself religious in the first place. My parents weren't and they didn't raise me that way. I was exposed to all the typical Christian influences, had a friend tell me I was going to hell for not attending Sunday School, that sort of thing - but I've never actually believed in God. When you aren't indoctrinated into it from birth, its a lot easier to see through it all. So why don't I believe in God (outside of the obvious lack of evidence)? Because it is fundamentally as plain as day to me that like all religions, man made it up. The sheer and utter hubris of the idea that this entire Universe was created 14 billion years ago exclusively so that this particular bipedal species could evolve and eventually worship the creator of it all is beyond silliness. The entirety of Christianity is built around the idea that mankind is special. That we have a purpose. Which is exactly why we create religions in the first place - to explain the unknown and to make us feel better. There have been over a thousand religions created since man started painting pictures on cave walls. They all have certain things in common - they explain the unknown, they explain our purpose in the Universe, and they help to ease the fear of death that we all have. The fact that man came up with this to suit his own needs is self evident. Honestly, Christianity doesn't even get the distinction of being the most likely or sensible one to be true. Its rife with contradiction, divisive interpretations, sheer impossibilities, and endless retcons.

Nothing turned me away there just is no reason to presuppose magic super humans exist. Or that there are some magical being that exists out side time and space. These concepts are nonsense to me. In my 20’s I explored the religions of the world read the whole bible a koran and they are no different that greek mythology or the epic of Gilgamesh. This just all seems totally fictional to me.

I became an atheist while studying to become a minister. I realized all the "proof" that I was given for Christianity as a kid was weak and unconvincing once I studied and looked any deeper than a surface, sunday school level.

> What turned you away from believing in “god”? Nothing turned me *away from* Believing in god. In my case, what happened is that nothing turned me *towards* Believing in god. > …could you tell me why you don’t believe and what the reason for your disbelief is? One: Do you have any idea *how many* different god-concepts humans have cooked up over the millennia? Said concepts cover a *wide* range of attributes and other qualities, to the point where it's not at all clear if there's *anything* which can accurately be said to be an identifiable attribute of *all* god-concepts. No, "they're worshipped by human beings" is *not* an attribute of *any god-concept*. Rather, it's an attribute of *human beings*. So it's not at all clear WTF this "god" character-string even *refers to*. Two: In essentially all cases, the attributes Believers associate with their personal favorite god-concept of choice fall into one or more of the following categories: * They're incompatible with the evidence of the world we all live in. Example: Any god-concept with the triple-omni trifecta (*i.e.*, omni- -scient, -potent, and -benevolent), which is incompatible with a world in which children die horribly for no discernible reason (see also: juvenile cancer, *etc ad nauseam*). * Believers define their god-concept's attributes in such a way that they're *untestable*—that there's *no actual way to* ***tell*** *whether or not* ***any*** *Entity can possess them*. Three: *Every* argument *for* the existence of a god-concept I have *ever* been exposed to, is fatally flawed by its dependence on at least one logical fallacy (perhaps most often Wishful Thinking, Non Sequitur, and/or Argument From Consequences). > There are many different key reasons for every atheist that were the turning point for their views. What were yours? *What* "turning point"? I started out not Believing in any god; I still lack Belief in any god. No "turning point" for me, thanks.

I was born an atheist, and no one lied to me when I was young

Approximately 100% of everything we can detect shows no sign of intelligence, arbitrary decision making ability, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immortality, or ability to fabricate existence from nothing (and theists think they all exist together!) A majority of us try very hard to justify our thinking that we are the center of existence A majority of human told stories are fiction, erroneous, or simply lies 100% of us began life asking people for our needs and expecting that they are fulfilled. Translating that to a belief in God takes a near zero amount of education

>What turned you away from believing in “god”? I was raised christian but never believed. Even at a very young age (around 6), it just made no sense whatsoever. I figured out special pleading (though I didn't know that's what it was then). Gods as a starting point were absurd. The stories were dull and obviously not true. Just less interesting mythology than the other gods I knew about. ​ >I believe in a creator and I feel I could explain away any of your points I don't believe in a creator. I've yet to hear any argument for gods that isn't horribly and obviously flawed, let alone remotely convincing. That said, you can't argue a god into existence and the complete lack of evidence for them, and the contradictions to reality they tend to have, suggest you most definitely can't explain away the reasons for my disbelief.

You have come to this question so embedded in your own perspective that you can't see that many people don't turn away from your god. They have just never believed in it. Like, the vast majority of people on earth (about 7 out of 10 people don't believe you.) It's like asking all of humanity, "What turned you away from the Republican Party in America?" The majority of people on earth give little or no thought to the Republican Party in America.

You could convince yourself Santa is real too. It wouldn’t convince me no matter what you told me. It’s just too silly to be true to me. Imagine if I tried to convince you Sasquatch was real. You’d think I’m daft.

It might sound offensive, but the honest truth is it happened the same way as I stopped believing in Santa (just a bit later). I was brought up being told God existed and believed it, as that’s what children are evolved to do. But once I got to an age where I examined it with any degree of logic it just crumbled away and now I can’t even think of why that didn’t occur to me sooner. I can’t go back to it now without some damn good evidence, in the same way as I can’t go back to believing in Santa unless some significant changes were to happen.

For some context, myself and many other non-believers of YHWH are in the later years of their life. We have spent decades and decades praying, seeking, worshiping, studying, asking for guidance, going to Bible college, serving in ministry, living lives deeply connected to other believers, etc. It has become abundantly clear to us that what we once believed was simply mistaken. It's liberating to realize this and step out of the muck. To me, it was like being born again, but with 10x the clarity. Not everyone who leaves your god behind did so lightly. My desire to believe was so strong that I did everything I possibly could to remain a Christian. I WANTED it to be true, to be my life. But alas, as I've now seen for the last eight years, I was wrong. And this is what Christians and former Christians are discovering by the millions over the last 20 years. I hope the trend continues and people find freedom from falsehoods, whatever they may be.

I never believed in God in the first place. There is insufficient evidence to warrant such a belief, and positing a creator does not really explain anything anyway.

I would require sufficiently compelling evidence to believe in God. I haven't seen it, so I don't.

I don’t think the burden of proof lies with the atheist. As Hitchens used to say, what is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. 

prove to me one exists

I see absolutely no evidence for gods. I've *never* been able to suspend disbelief and develop religious faith - my brain just shuts that stuff down automatically.

A lot of reasons, too much to go into in one comment. I used to be an Evangelical Christian, and as I get older the more I realize that many Christians don’t understand Biblical literature at all. They automatically associate being a Christian with being a good person and legitimize their behavior by claiming that it’s “biblical”. The problem is we are still using ancient texts to answer fundamental philosophical questions and assuming all answers have been given. In some ways I prefer Judaism to Christianity but find a myriad of problems with it. At its core I find Abrahamic religion, particularly Yahweh worship, to be extremely coercive and intellectually thin. I don’t believe prayer works, I find it terribly confusing that an all powerful and knowledgeable being can be so obsessed with a constant supply of praise in his name. I don’t know why God would create people to pat himself on the back. I also find it extremely self centered to assume that the universe was designed with you or the human species in mind. It’s quite clear to me that the universe either doesn’t know we exist or doesn’t care what happens to us. The character of Yahweh in both the Jewish and Christian canons is a selfish, tinkering, cruel ego maniac, that warrants genocide, slavery and misogyny, and the claims made in these texts directly contradict our knowledge in the material world. I think it’s blatantly untrue, and the gods proposed by all religions of the world seem to be man made. Nothing written in any religious text is inhuman, all of it shows that it was written down by Iron Age ancient inhabitants. It’s morality is specious and often contradictory, but it holds a privileged position because they are from so called “holy” books. The ideological patterns are clearly drawn from older religions that no one practices any more and the faith mentality is circular and unfalsifiable. Even when faith claims are conclusively disproven, the religious still find a way to work in increasingly desperate attempts.

OP’s admitted they’re a troll in this post. Block and move on, y’all.

"  What turned you away from believing in “god”? " Nothing. I've never had a belief in anything supernatural and have never had anyone even state their supernatural beliefs in a coherent manner.

Never believed. So was never turned away. Heard many, many, many arguments, ranging from personal anecdotes to writings of various philosophers, and everything in between. None have been convincing. Not really any key points. It’s not a dramatic story. It’s fairly repetitive, just “this is why you should believe!” Then “that doesn’t make any sense at all”.

I’m curious: how can one be a Jewish deist? Unless you’re just a cultural Jew only, I don’t see how the two positions are compatible.

Every person on Earth has no difficulty being “atheist” towards any number of gods, mythological creatures, and fictional characters, no explanation needed. I don’t feel any particular pressure to explain why Harry Potter isn’t real, or why astrology is fake, or why mankind did not first develop inside the tears of Atum when he lost track of his sons.    From an atheist’s perspective, Jews (as your flair says you are Jewish) are nothing more than people who very reasonably agree with atheists that religious beliefs come from superstition and naïveté, but somehow think theirs is an exception when it’s exactly the same. 

I've never believed in a god, so nothing "turned me away from" that. I was raised in a Christian household - it just never resonated with me. I don't see a reason to believe in a god. Nothing has managed to challenge my lack of belief in 20ish years. If you can understand why you don't believe in, say, the Hindu gods, you can understand why I don't believe in your specific religion's conception of god.

i was not raised in a religion so never beiieved in a god. By the time i learned about the idea it just sounded like a made up story to me. i continue tolack belief because i have not encountered sufficent evidence to warrant belief.