ju'iblex

Well, i was born into mild religious conflict, Anglican and East Orthodox <grandparents>. As a result my parents decided that I was free to choose which religion I would go into. I chose none.

Whilst that obviously had something to do with it, I can say my abandonment <not that i ever really picked it up> of religion came from looking at the society around me. I live in Sydney, and by the time I really started thinking about religion, i had just moved schools to a more diverse area. There was a christadelphian, buddhist, catholics, anglicans, jehovah's witnesses. Then I would go home watch TV and see all the religious conflict and wonder why on earth this would happen. I stopped attending scripture lessons at this point.

By the age of 11/12 I went to high school, which was far more diverse. 50% of us are non-Xians, and even then the Xians are divided into orthodox, salvation army etc. etc. we have 4 hindus, about 40 buddhists, a plethora of different types. Again, through looking at the world we live and how it worked it occurred to me that none of us are really different, all completely the same, and the religions in which a lot of these people believed were telling me the contrary. Whilst I could have taken up Buddhism still, i couldn't make myself believe in objective forces and judgements like that.

So in essence, i blame diversity

Beetle

For becoming an evangelical christian, the influences were C.S. Lewis, J.C. Ryle, R.C. Sproul (what's with all the initials?), John Calvin and John Owen.

For not being one anymore: The Bible, Carl Sagan and you guys.

BioBeing

I'm not sure what my influences were. My mother was slightly religous, but not a regular church goer. My dad, I think, is atheist, but we really don't talk about it. None of my grandparents were particularly religous either. I grew up in the UK, and attended religous assemblies every day at school. I remember getting in trouble for tearing up my hymn book when I was about 7 or 8. The whole thing made no sense to me even then, and would bore me to tears. Later, when I was about 12, I asked for my own bible because I wanted to understand, but it still made no sense. No defining moment, no one conversation. I like to think that I was just born this way.

Ab_Normal

My dad was not religious, and while we went to church every week and attended Catholic school, my mom could be best described as an "apatheist". I feel she went through the motions of religious belief to keep her mother, a devout Catholic, happy; now it's just a life-long habit she's not going to break. Our family had a real emphasis on rationality and logic, which kind of blew up in their faces when I applied those tools to religion!

The Naked Mage

The manufacturers of those stiff, ill-fitting children's dress-up shoes. Seriously.

"If there is a loving god, he does not want us to wreck ourselves for appearances." - Nakey's first religious realization, circa age 6

paul30

Many thinkers have influenced me in my religious thinking, but all of them merely confirmed (and sometimes made articulate) what I had previously experienced on my own.

Ever since I can remember, I have had mystical experiences: moments of transcendence in which I knew--I felt and saw and heard and practically breathed--oneness with everything.

So when the Christians came along and did their worst to convince me of the Otherness of God--which Jesus kindly but bloodily overcame--it struck me as complete nonsense.

But when people from the East--Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, etc.--told me that what I was experiencing was the truth, I thought, "Yes, they are right."

So the latter were the ones I paid attention to.

Bumble Bee Tuna

I guess you could say my parents influenced me with their complete and utter non-mention of religion over the course of my entire life. After that I'd say it was all forum members who shaped my beliefs in any meaningful way.

Author of the Atheism Web's definitions of atheist/agnostic got me to stop being a pussy about what I believed and admit I was actually an atheist and not an agnostic.
Novowels shaped them some. I've always been an atheist but Novowels got me going against Christianity in particular and provoked a lot of thought by posting a topic called "Did Jesus Exist" (other board). I never knew there was such a small amount of evidence for Jesus. Got some wheels turning.

After that I guess it was Koyanisqaatsi who made me admit to myself I was actually a strong atheist, and not this weak atheist bullshit.

But I'd say most of my ideas have come from yours truly. I still have yet to read any kind of philosophy books but someday I will. If anything my views have been mildly shaped by the entirety of the IIDB so I can't really name particulars.

Oh, also the wonderful Bible I rummaged through late one night at my grandmother's. Probably my first exposure to religion. I thought, 'What a shitty story' after reading a little bit of Genesis. And that remains my opinion to this day. People who claim the Bible is at least a great story are smoking crack. That shit is boring.

-B

KnightWhoSaysNi

For me it was:

Pat Robertson -- When I watched the US presidential election over 10 years ago, I was strongly turned off by the religious right. I began to think, "being a devout Christian means becoming someone like THAT?"

Dan Barker -- his book Losing Faith in Faith had strongly impressed me when I read it almost 10 years ago.

Philip Kitcher -- I was strongly impressed by his book Abusing Science which exposed creationists. After that, I felt a little resentful being taught creationist nonsense from a Christian school in jr. high.

callmejay

Hmm.. it's actually hard for me to remember specific influences.

Tom Robbins, probably. Science books (Hawking, Dawkins, etc.) Ironically (since he's a Mormon) Orson Scott Card books as well as other science fiction (Sagan et al.)

More so, the religious people I grew up with and went to school with. Although the data were not perfect, the general trend seemed to be: the more secular you were, the more compassionate and less irrational; the more religious, the less compassionate and more irrational.

The Bible (or Torah, in my case.) If I ever had a make or break moment, it was when I considered the verse about how a man lying with a man as with a woman is an abomination and should be surely killed. I reasoned, well hell, either God wrote (or inspired) this and is therefore immoral according to my standards, or he didn't and so what's the point? Either way, I no longer felt any moral obligation to believe. And without a moral obligation, belief definitely wasn't going to happen based on the evidence alone.

Wayne Delia

Two words: Thomas Paine. Age of Reason. OK, five words.

WMD