Oh it takes some relentless cryptic word salad to make me throw the towel in, and even then I’ll try my best to understand it. 
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By the way, I have my own set of things that trigger my very own version of OCD. Like the use of backticks (`) instead of ordinary apostrophes ('), like this: you`re, it`s. And the use of the backslash (\) instead of the regular slash (/), like this: aardvark\beaver\codfish.
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Oddly my most common typo is hitting the ; instead of the ', as they’re next to each other. So I will type something like you;re kidding, and a spellchecker seems to miss it, so I have to go get those suckers one at a time myself. Luckily I am a fussy little man, and I re-read posts, but yet I find typos in posts where the time to edit has expired, drives me a little bit nuts, but it’d be boring if everything always went to plan…honest… 
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How did you become an atheist? Did you make your choice gradually or in response to a particular incident? Have you personally looked into different religions before deciding to become an atheist?
I didn’t become an atheist. I’ve never had any gods.
Honestly, I educated myself. It was that simple. As a Christian, I thought I had all the answers and even wanted to be a minister. I was baptized in the Assemblies of God. I was a Bible preaching phenom during my early teens.
My desire to become a minister took me on a wild journey. I figured that if I was going to be talking about God, I should know as much as I could. Logically, to me at that time, this translated into visiting every church in town. Pratt Kansas is a small town of not more than 7,000 residents. There are more than 50 churches in the area. I tried to hit all the major faiths.
If you have never tried this, it is the Church up the street that is following false teachings and false prophets. It is the heathen attending the Church across the street that God will not permit into heaven for their heathen ways. Christianity is an ‘in-group’ / ‘out-group’ religion, as is Islam. You are either a member of this sect and saved or you are not a member and damned for the pits of hell or annihilation. Christians invented hell to scare their children into believing. It was not a part of the Jewish faith.
By the end of my journey, I was completely disillusioned with Western Gods and religions. I began looking at mystical traditions, other gods, and other religions, and this continued until my university years. At university, I began as a sociology major and had an interest in dream cultures. The Hare Krishna movement was strong at this time, as was Transcendental Meditation. I read a mass of books on metaphysical traditions. I took up Taoism for a very short while and then moved into Buddhism which went well with my martial arts training.
Always learning, I picked up Anton Levey’s material, explored Carlos Casteneda, and began following the teachings of G.I. Gurgiff as I moved away from Buddhism. The teachings of J. Krishnamurti were particularly interesting as he attacked Buddhist dogma. And I was free of the Buddhist grip. But Krishnamurti’s teachings of ‘Love’ turned my stomach. I altered his language and decided ‘acceptance’ was a much better word. I carry that with me today (you will not understand what I mean without reading his works.)
So having thoroughly explored the world’s major religions and found them all lacking, (Lacking in the sense they profess dogma for which they have no actual evidence for.) The logical conclusion was not to believe any of them. They can not all be right, but they can all be wrong.
Education is the bane of religion. The more you know about it, the less likely you are to be religious.
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I had a wonderful free thinking Grandpa (Papa) who bought my first illustrated bible on request. We went through the stories and analysed them as to whether some of them were likely, possible, probable or obviously made up. He took me to the Catholic, Wee Frees and the Kirk where we buttonholed the ministers and heard the reasons why they were right and the rest were damned. He was a staunch Trade Union man and card carrying socialist…so I had a grand education in socialist principles, less pleasantly, communist party harangues at meetings.
As I grew older I widened my conversations and visited synagogues, my family business was dominated by Jews so contact was plentiful. I visited Eastern and Greek Orthodox Churches, I had a Coptic Christmas (memorable), my friend for while at that time was a Greek Orthodox priest in training. I, of course was visited by Mormons, JW’s and evangelists. like any householder and accosted in the street by random religionistas including the (back then) omnipresent Hare Krishnas.
I also visited mosques, noted schisms and discussed (where possible) their traditions and their book.
Then I became involved in some very traditional martial arts and became fascinated by Zen. That led to looking at Buddhism and its 3 main traditions. In all this time I did not find the concept of a god presented to me by anyone convincing or even agreeable.
Then (Some 40 years ago) I made the acquaintance, soon to be fast friends, with a Jesuit Priest. Over several blood curdling and blood letting, vicious games of croquet and even more red wine than recommended, we discussed religion in depth. He rekindled my interest in history and the necessity to research the “givens” that so many assume about their religion.
That interest became a passion, and in the last 20 years I have made the study of the 1st to 5th Centuries, the rise of the 'Christian" churches in particular, my special hobby.
So from a “really not interested” at 8 years old I have progressed to a “You gotta be kidding” atheist.
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I was born an atheist, and have never seen any objective evidence for any deity, so have remained one.
No.
This is a strange question, since I decide whether to believe a claim, but I already am lacking that belief, so it’s not really a decision, like asking how many types of mermaids did you look into, before deciding they didn’t exist?
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This is an excellent point to make. People do not choose to become atheists. It is not a belief system. Explaining this to you is a bit like explaining mountain goats to a fish. No one becomes an Atheist.
Atheist is a word that you have for anyone who does not believe in a god. You and your ilk made up the word. You will find it paired with heathen, sinner, transgressor, heretic, unbeliever, faithless, infidel, barbarian, philistine, and all those other words your loving group pushes off on anyone who challenges your “holy beliefs.” You and your ilk made 'atheism; a thing, not athests.
If you imagine religious beliefs to be a backpack, an atheist is a person who put the backpack down and just walked away from it. He or she did not replace the backpack with anything. He or She just set it down and walked away. It the example Mr. Sheldon provided, he just never had a backpack. He also can not figure out why anyone would bother burdening themselves with one of those damn things. What’s the point? Can you give even one good reason for someone to burden themselves with a backpack?
So when you ask what made you an atheist, you are actually asserting that there is a backpack called ‘atheism’ that people pick up and put on. This is not the case. As I said before, all people have done is set down the backpack called religion and walk away from it. No one becomes an atheist. They just stop believing silly assertions made by religions. (And walk away.)
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I too think this is a strangely worded question. It implies that being an atheist or becoming an atheist is a choice - like learning music or pursuing a degree. It just isn’t! As several have said, you kind of discover you’re an atheist - you don’t try to become one.
In my case, I was in my formative years, attending church because my family did, but I hadn’t really considered my religious beliefs. A situation developed where I was convinced that I was going to get a sign from god - and the opposite happened. The only way this made sense is if god didn’t exist.
It was at that point that I noticed that a person’s religious beliefs were closely tied to where they lived. I also noticed that the more religious the person was, the more hypocritical they were. That cemented my thinking.
So to answer your questions: No, I only looked at other religions in relationship to where a person lived and realized it wasn’t the “truth” that mattered - that if a god existed, there ought be one religion. It was not a decision. It was a conclusion based on what evidence was around me.
This was way, way before the internet. I felt like I was the only one, but I knew there had to be others because every so often they would surface - and they would be quickly and loudly denounced. So I kept my head down and avoided the subject.
When the internet came along, I could connect with others of a like mind. And it seemed there were more than I thought. Recent statistics seemed to suggest that atheism is growing - but it also seems that many people are atheist but don’t want to admit it!
The future looks bright from my perspective.
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We are born not knowing anything about gods; we are born atheists. People typically have to be taught a religion.
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I don’t know why Christians refuse to accept this. A majority of them allow the church system to brain wash them in believing in a whole plethora of absurdities.
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Maybe it’s because they baptize infants? Or because they believe souls are created at fertilization?
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Who knows. So many church denominations out there filling people’s heads full of this nonsense. A majority of Christians like to rattle off about their own head canon on what they “believe”. I’ve heard so many bs ideas from them, especially when I was a teen boy. A lot of it’s just crazy shit.
How is your perspective shaped by your lack of faith in a higher power? Without religious belief, what is the best way to deal with issues of morality, meaning, and purpose?
Marie,
The way you phrased those questions makes me think you’re not an atheist at all. Ya’ see, an atheist would know that not having a belief doesn’t shape anything at all. It"s the other way around: My perspective and my morality, meaning, and purpose shape my Atheism.
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I have no idea, as my perspective is shaped, and always has been shaped, by the society I live in and my growing wealth of experience.
The idea of a “higher power” is entirely irrelevant until a believer accosts me and insists that I should avoid burning in their version of everlasting punishment. Then my perspective is that they are as annoying as a swarm of midges at a picnic but do no real harm, nor change my mind about dining out.
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“Lack of Faith?” How is your perspective shaped by your inability to live on Mars? Do you run about the world thinking about it all day.? When you pass an observatory do you realize all you have been missing? When scientists discuss the possibilities of Mars, do you facepalm yourself and say "Sure, that it what I am missing in my life? Nothing is lacking in a ‘lack of faith.’ ‘Faith’ (The belief in things unseen.) Now logic, reason, and a request for evidence replace the idea of blind and very ignorant faith. Have you any evidence at all that your version of god exists and that it is the only god? I would be very interested in how you ruled out all other gods when they are all supported by the same reasons that you try to support your god.
LOL… How did you ever get the idea that your version of god was moral? Have you not read your religious text?
Morality is the natural consequence of social species. Apes, whales, dogs, bats, and more, all have systems of morality. This is what happens when a species lives in a group. Rules are established for the good of the group. “I won’t steal from you if you don’t steal from me.” “If someone does not get along in the group, they are asked to leave or eliminated.” Human evolution has favored the cooperative. Religion was just a human response to the need for cooperation. Morality is a human invention just like your religious texts.
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I don’t understand the question? Is your perspective shaped by beliefs you lack? Like everyone else I imagine my perspective is shaped by my own reason, combined with all the influences that I live under.
All morality is subjective, so I am not sure I understand what you mean? I can reason that I would not want to be treated badly, so why I treat others badly. I attach purpose and meaning to my life subjectively, as I imagine do most people. I don’t believe that life itself has any overarching purpose or meaning, since I see no objective evidence for this. These things are not an issue for me.
I asked you if you could demonstrate any objective evidence for any deity, did you have an answer?
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Yea just trying to learn and understand, I dont mean to come off offensive or anything of that sort.