chekmate

Do you think that some people are just Born to be Atheist? I think that I was, as I grew up in a Christian Family, went to church every day till I was 13, and then started to think about it a little more, and came to the conclusion that there was not God. What makes me different then my brother, or my friends, or my girlfreind, who had a relatively similar upbringing? What made me an Atheist, and them religious? Was I just born this way?

I am

Hey, you just stole my life story. Come to think of it I even grew-up in Michigan! (actually I was 16 when I stopped going to church, but I never believed in it)

Nu

Thinking critically, at least on the topic of religion, is likely what made you an atheist.

When I was young I would hear all the bible stories and think how outrageous they were. How could an entire sea be parted?

Then in High School I realized nearly all cultures have some sort of wild religous belief, and almost all of them claim to be the One True Faith. That put the final nail in the coffin.

Now I have reached the point where if the Christian god exists, I would rather burn in hell than be a slave in heaven.

crocodile deathroll

This may explain why there are so many fundamentalists in protestant denominations. It is because they (unlike the Catholic clergy) marry and pass on their fundamentalist genes.

GaryP

There is some research which shows humans' brains are predisposed toward religion.

Maybe some of us are lacking that gene. Or maybe we are "blessed" with an abundance of the "Rational Thinking" gene!

uhcord

I never believed in the notion of there being a god.

I just sorta went along with it all the same way I went along with all that santa crap.

I didn't proclaim I didn't believe in god till much later (when I was 16, I'm now 17) since there was so much pressure to believe in him.

Hell, I didn't even know there was a word for people that didn't believe in god till I was 16.

philechat

As far as I read, people who were tested to have high openness and high psychoticism (low agreeableness and low conscientiousness) are more likely to become atheists or freethinkers.

Though trait psychoticism (which may sound bad) is found higher among the mentally ill, it is also much higher among prominant artists and scientists. Trait psychoticism includes risk-taking behaviors, dominance, independence, unconventionality, tough-mindedness, impulsivity, and creativity.

Trait openness, which includes a more vivid imagination, higher creativity, liberality, and greater aesthetic sensibility, is also found higher in atheists and freethinkers, according to a 1998 issue of The Humanist.

I guess these traits might propel one to question societal conventions and authority, which might be one explanation of certain people's predisposition toward freethinking.

[ May 13, 2002: Message edited by: philechat ]</p>

Totalitarianist

Originally posted by philechat:
As far as I read, people who were tested to have high openness and high psychoticism (low agreeableness and low conscientiousness) are more likely to become atheists or freethinkers.

[ May 21, 2002: Message edited by: Trebaxian Vir ]</p>

Ron Singh

Hi,
I think it more or less depends on your value system when you grow up, your environment, and your knowledge of religion. Growing up until about twelve years old, I didn't think of religion too much but I just thought there was a God. Since about a year ago, when I was 14 years old, I had an explosion of theological and atheistic thoughts, both battling in my brain for dominance. My environment as a child was a religious one, but not fundamentalistic at all. I did not pray at all, and attended my temple perhaps once a couple of months. I was and still am extremely liberal in terms of politics and such. My value system was EXTREMELY against racism, in which if I even heard someone call someone black, opposed to african american, I wouldbe offended greatly. I wanted to grow up to be a scientist, more precisely something that had to do with physics. My knowledge of my religion was very lacking. I hardly knew what my religion was about. It is vital that as theist, the parent does not shove or force religion onto the child. The parent should logically talk about religion when asked and be truthful. Religion should be examined in depth and with more consideration in the adolescent age. This is when the child's thoughts are more coherant, and organized. This is what I plan on doing when I am a father. With this being said, good thing that the theist won the battle of my brain over the atheist.
*Sorry for the incoherancy or lack of format or rambling to my post. I'm just freewriting.

~Your friendly neighborhood 15yr old Sikh

seebs

I was raised "Christian", but had no real opinion on the God thing for quite some time. Annoying Christians eventually drove me away from the church; even-more-annoying atheists finally drove me back.

Hardwired? I dunno. I can't tell whether I'm built to believe the way I do, or whether my memories of experiences and gradual acceptance of points is "really" what happened. Obviously, since I believe, I *believe* that this reflects the external world. Can't prove much either way.

The only way to explore this usefully would be to look at late-life conversions, I think.