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.
Anonymous:
This Anon. is “the daughter of Agnostic-Atheist parents…My father was an incredibly smart, successful, well-educated man, and he was a very vocal Atheist. He showed respect to everyone’s beliefs, but he despised religions, had something negative to say about every one of them, and always talked about how illogical the whole concept was.”
Main points:
16-18 yrs old.
Sadly, the statements are far too generic as, for example, just what does “smart” mean, “book smart,” “street smart” what? For example, daddy respected beliefs he despised—go figure. We are also told that he appealed to logic but not how or if he premised it on anything or merely assumed it nor why logic is some sort of virtue.
Due to grandma and family friend she was acquainted with Muslims, Jews and Christians who, “never introduced their beliefs as facts, they introduced them as just beliefs.” She notes that “Neither of my parents ever told me about Santa, any fictional story, or, God in a way that would make me believe they were real…I have never been religious, but I considered the option there might have been a God. Until high school.” She notes that she “wanted to believe in a God” because “who wouldn’t like it if an invisible power could help your father heal from the disease he has, help your childhood crush to develop feelings for you, protect you when you’re alone?” With these sorts of presuppositions in mind she states that she began reading the Bible and thought various things I will list and reply to one by one:
“The God I pictured is more loving than this” God is not required to adhere to our preconceived notions of Him. In fact, doing so would mean that we are God’s god.
“This doesn’t make any sense” yet, as we have seen time and time again, this is merely a subjective assertion based on credulity and incredulity.
“No word about dinosaurs?” yet, we are not told why the Bible should mention them. Moreover, she did not seem to have read the Book of Job, for example, which mentions the Behemoth and Leviathan the description of which is certainly akin to forms of dinosaurs (see Job chaps 40 and 41, not surprisingly, Job is the oldest book in the Bible).
“How come nothing like that happens today?” this is merely a presupposition which assumed omniscience as she claims to know this is a fact and also does not explain why such things should still occur.
“If God does control the world like this, why are there children and puppies in pain? If we say children are in pain because humans betrayed God, what is a puppy’s fault?” note the Atheist theology: if God is then X would be the case but since X is not the case then God is not. This also does not tell us why pain is condemnable, wrong, evil, bad, etc.
“God created everything, and an angel HE created betrayed him? And now whole humanity pays for his crime?? What did I do?!” firstly, Satan is not an Angel, he is a Cherub. Technically, whole humanity pays for Adam and Eve’s crime because we are a global village. Yet, since we are not told why any of this is condemnable, wrong, evil, bad, etc. then there is nothing to which we must reply.
Within the last statement this Atheist speaks volumes as it is shockingly honest, “my logic and scientific facts finally suppressed my wish to believe in a God.” Firstly, generic logic and generic science are appealed to but we are not told what, how or why but we are, apparently, supposed to be impressed. Note the key point which is that her “wish to believe in a God” was not proved to be wrong or any such thing but remained and was “suppressed.”
Romans 1 notes that “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.”
Alan Cohen:
He refers to himself as a “Rabid atheist” and he may want to wipe the foam from his mouth and actually engage in critical thinking as this is a short paragraph statement beginning with “I grew up in an orthodox Jewish family. Genesis, started me down the road” and asks two questions.
Main points:
No age given.
“Why are there 2 stories about the creation of man?” For the same reason that a good newspaper story begins with an intro paragraph that provides main facts succinctly and then the story progresses filling in details. Genesis 1 provides succinct facts and Genesis 2 provides details.
“What happened to Lilith?” Well, what happened to her is that she is not biblical and was invented by folklorists and thus, is a non-issue, see here.
Anonymous:
I have a lot in common with this Anon. as they notes, “I underwent the seriously difficult time of outing myself to my parents as an atheist” and I underwent the seriously difficult time of outing myself to my parents as an Christian.
Main points:
No age given.
Thus, there were difficulties even though the parents, “are not very religious people.” Anon. “became an atheist almost entirely through satire” which actually make a lot of sense. This is an utterly perfect example of how a little knowledge (very, very little) compounded with lack of skepticism and basing one’s views on emotions leads to poor conclusions. It is notes “When I read quotes from the bible” meaning un-contextual thought fragments, “denouncing homosexuality and that seem to treat women as second class citizens” note that is merely “seem” to and that is good enough by golly, “that prescribe genocide as an answer and that ban the wearing of mixed fabric clothing, I asked myself, should I really believe in this?”
And that is the end of it, apparently the answer was “No.” However, we are not told why we should even believe that there is anything wrong, bad, evil, etc. with denouncing homosexuality, treating women as second class citizens (which is the opposite of that which the Bible teaches, see here), genocide, bans on wearing of mixed fabric clothing, etc. and so the Atheist pulled the rug out directly from under themselves and left themselves no footing on which to condemn anything at all.
Stephen Tingate:
He notes, “my parents werent religious…allow me to make up my own mind” in other words, began with a tendency toward Atheism and raise according to the myth of neutrality.
Main points:
No age given.
He notes, “We were taught about religion at school” and he thought, “it was ‘a good story’ and nothing more” as if this is some sort of argument.
He also merely asserts an argument from subjective incredulity, “I found it hard and still do that people can ever convince themselves thats its real.”
Lastly, he note, “My view is that religion is a convenient where because people can say oh thats how everything was created and ah even better i dont gave to worry about what happens when i die!” This is to say virtually nothing as, for example, for many Christians “religion is” not “a convenient” but brings them persecution, torture and death, it does provide us the “why” regarding the creation and what, exactly, is supposed to be the problem with not having to worry about what happens when I die?
Stephen merely asserts many things rather than premising, arguing and coming to conclusions.
Max Jones:
He simply admits that he lives in a bubble, “The majority of the people I know are and always have been atheist. Its people that are religious that have that coming out thing going.”
Main points:
No age given but from birth is implied.
Seems to base views on one of the various definitions of Atheism which is a mere lack of belief in god(s).
Gil Cosson:
Just as above, Gil plays off of only one view on or definition of Atheism and asserts, without evidence or argument, that “People are all newborn atheists.”
Main points:
From birth.
Gil then writes, “Then socialized/indoctrinated into the family belief system” which is committing the logical genetic fallacy.
There is only one more sentence to this one which is “Apply Occam’s razor to the world. Go with your heart.”
Well, Occam’s Razor cuts both ways and Atheists throw it away when they want to appeal to the multiverse. Lastly, note that Gil admits to relying on emotions for his position.
Richard Smith:
This one is just as short, sour and fallacious as Gil’s beginning with a myopic definition of Atheism, “Everyone was born atheist!!!”
Main points:
From birth.
“Your indoctrination to religion began at the christening or whatever equivalent in religions other than Christianity” this denotes a logical genetic fallacy.
Jean-Philippe Le Picard: He simply offers a one liner, “How and why did you stop believing that Santa Claus brings presents at Christmas?”
This denotes a childish and thus, undeveloped theology, logic and philosophy as correlating Santa and God is to commit a category error.
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