Herein we will consider when and why certain personages became Atheists. We will parse these into Statistics, Influential Atheists, Ex-Catholics, Ex-Hindus and Hoi Polloi Atheists. As of now, I list the tales of 107 Atheists. You can find them all at the When and Why They Became Atheists Project page.
These examples are taken from Quora.
Kumar Ayush:
Family were “‘officially’ Hindus…not into superstitious stuff…never ask God for anything, and never thank him for anything…my mother told me…We don’t care if you believe in God or not. Pray to him or not.”
Main points:
No age given.
Interestingly, Kumar writes, “I would never say ‘I don’t believe in God’. Atheism is defined by contemporary dictionaries to be ‘denial in existence of God’ but I don’t agree to it in a philosophical way. We don’t have a proof ‘for’ him, but we have no evidence which can logically establish his non-existence. A true atheist in my opinion, when asked about existence of God, would say, ‘I am not sure.’” Well then, a true Atheist is an agnostic then.
Divyanth Jayaraj:
Gives a nice age by age account beginning with “At 15, I had a somewhat vague idea of what God is. My religion was mostly in line with Hindu beliefs…At 16, I saw the movie, passion of the christ and I was greatly moved by it. I wanted to follow the example of Jesus. Even though I was too tired to read the Bible, I looked for other sources; folklore about Jesus, Moses and other Abrahamic figures.”
Main points:
26 yrs old.
“At 18” reacted to non-stop news about Islamic terrorism and “human-rights abuses in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan and I developed a genuine hatred for Islam…began trolling and bigoting on various internet forums…At 19, I met someone” who appears to have turned Divyanth on to Muslim mysticism.
At “26…finally realized…Submission” in a mystical Islamic manner “only made me more ignorant and more fearful of my own thoughts…I learned of logical fallacies and found out that Quran is full of it…that’s the story of my atheism. But I still think about God, Allah, Krishna and Jesus for kicks’ sake.”
Lastly, Divyanth notes “I’ve also realized that being an atheist literally frees your mind to endless thought processes” which is the exact 100% opposite of the case. Well, okay, an Atheist can think that which they will but Atheism itself will restrict their conclusions to only those that are materialistic/naturalistic.
Diniel Patel: Interestingly, Diniel begins by noting “Found no evidence to believe in the omnipresent god(s)” and yet, in order to have searched out all such evidence Diniel would have to be omniscient.
Thus, Diniel falls into folly instantly and continues falling further from there by noting, “May be there is a god. I am yet to see any empirical proof of it/him/her. And yeah, Abrahamic religions, why just HE? Greek, Indian religions at least give justice to all genders.”
Main points:
Mid-teens.
It may be a language gap but this is an utterly mistaken and confused assertion. Diniel does not define that which is meant by empirical proof in their estimation but only asserts that they have seen none. The Abrahamic religions do not believe that God is a male yet, generically refer to God via male gender terms. Jesus came as a male but there is no indication that the Godhead, in nature and essence is male. In fact, since the Abrahamic religions believe that God is spirit, it is literally impossible for God to be a male since, as Jesus put it, “a spirit has not flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39).
Now, what this has to do with “justice” is unclear but while you are at it you can read Is the Bible misogynistic? and Biblical Women.
As it turns out, Diniel was “Born in to a believer Hindu family, not super religious…went to an [Seventh Day] Adventist school” and notes “how are we different from the stupid Catholics…I could not bring myself to accept god…by the middle of my teens.”
Diniel recalls “praying to god, for a nice pen, a nice girlfriend, end of my dad’s alcoholism, tasty food everyday” and upon being “told to be altruistic…thought, ok, maybe god won’t give me what I ask for myself but maybe he will listen to my prayers AND ACT ON THEM, if I asked for other people” yet upon doing this, “NOTHING WORKED.”
He then went from condemning God for not obeying his commands, prayers, to appealing to the problem of evil as “I couldn’t bring myself to accept a god who brings a child into this world that has cancer or a broken limb or any other diseases or deformities.” Given his Hindu background, he notes that “The concept of sins from your previous birth affecting your current birth, still does not make sense to me” and me neither.
He ends with “I wont believe in god till I find evidence, that can withstand test of time” and yet, does not hint at what such evidence would look like.
Ian Sawyer:
It is interesting that he seems to boast, “50+ years as an atheist, and nothing has convinced me to believe otherwise” when one could also say something to the likes of 50+ years as a fugitive, and nothing has convinced me to turn myself in.
This one is very short and simply notes that “Only a small percentage of people here” with reference to Australia and New Zealand “are particularly religious….over half of us are either atheist or agnostic, so any atheistic ‘coming out’ is pretty much a non-event.”
Main points:
No age given but apparently from birth.
Well, the question was not when did you come out as an Atheist but why did you become one. In short, he affirms that he is merely the product of his secular culture.
Steve Doig:
This one is very short as well noting, “My parents took us to church…out of a sense of social duty” which means that walking away from that was walking away from nothing.
Main points:
“was an unconscious atheist early”
He terms religion a “virus” and that is about it.
Jason Kramer:
This short one references “questions” which “kept becoming bigger and deeper” and “Reading religious texts ironically made my doubts and questions multiply.”
He simply notes that “Eventually, every pastor or peer got really bummed out and every answer became ‘You should pray to God for the answer’” and that “He didn’t answer.”
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