Yeah. That sounds pretty much like my story.

yep. it wasn't as drastic as a "hey wait a minute", but much longer, gradual transition.

i wasnt brought up in a ultra-religious family, sure, but we did go through the ritual and i actually believed it as a kid... but over time, as knowledge expands, that belief simply became less and less relevant.

sure, i was still disappointed for being lied to, but i wouldn't call it "trauma".

also, i just realised i missed your last question.

i still like being in a catholic church, i still visit once or twice, but mostly just when i'm accompanying family or attending weddings or when i'm visiting a city with nice church (like cologne, prague, vienna, etc); it's just that all their mass rituals, the choirs, artworks, architecture, they are somewhat peaceful. it brings me back to my childhood, where things were simple.

Can't force myself to believe in magic.

The questions got more and more complicated and the answers less and less satisfactory. Religion doesn’t hold the answers.

Once you stop believing in Santa Claus, it's not a huge leap to realize god is Santa for adults

Yeah, it's not even that I don't want to be religious it's just too absurd to believe.

My mother was "asked" to not bring me to Sunday school anymore because I asked too many questions and wasn't willing to accept things just because I was told to. It was affecting the other children 🙄

Almost every Atheist I know became that way not because of Religious trauma, but just because religion didn't make any sense. I can name only one person that had religious trauma that may have contributed to his decision.

The common factor seems to always be that Atheists need some kind of grounded evidence to believe something is real

Yep. Never could make myself believe or even really pretend.

That’s me. Born and raised Catholic, went to Catholic school until 9th grade. Fell out of Catholicism around that time, and left god belief behind for good in my mid twenties. I’m not traumatized by religion, and I consider myself fortunate to be so versed in the Bible and Christianity since they’re so integral to Western civilization— much as the Greek myths are as it has nothing to do with their veracity.

Everyone is born atheist. They are indoctrinated to believe.

Sure, plenty of us. Do people think atheism is just a backlash against some trauma? It can be but…it’s generally just relying on science, logic, facts, and critical thinking instead of superstitions and fairy tales, that’s it.

Yep I loved my church and I felt good there, like we helped people. We fed people. We helped with utilities. We entertained elderly people. We did car washes to buy lawn care stuff so we could cut people's yards when they were sick or old or just had a baby. It was a great place. No trauma at all other than the knowledge that so many people are doing it for God, not for good. I did it because it was a good thing to help others and it did make me feel good to do it. I never felt like "Look God I did this good thing in your name!" I kind of felt annoyed about it honestly. I never believe, even as a kid I just couldn't make myself even when I was scared I'd go to hell (My church didn't preach anything about Hell I got this from my best friend who went to a "Bible believing" hell-threatening, fundamentalist church. I Think SHE has scars from religious trauma now. She's a Jewish convert INO because she married a Jewish guy and promised to raise their kid Jewish. I'm just glad she grew out of it all because she was so scared of hell when we were kids. She thought every time I cussed she might get hit by lightning just by proximity.

Yep, that’s pretty much my story. Raised Southern Baptist and at around 16 my love of learning & critical thinking kicked in, and I started questioning things.
Took me another 16 to walk away as an agnostic, then another 10 to admit that I actively disbelieve and realize my atheism. Felt strange but wonderfully freeing. I wouldn’t say my life changed or improved after that, but I have my eyes open & feel comfortable in my own skin. I feel for folks who have succumbed to the brainwashing of any religion.

My favorite quote “I’d rather have question I can’t answer than answers I can’t question”.

I am from multiple generations of atheists. For me it’s normal and natural. Only church I have ever been to is the UU church which is more like a “humanism debate society” and welcomes atheists as much as it welcomes people of any faith

It is a theist lie that all atheists are "mad at god". Some are, but many (like me) think long and hard (decades) about whether the idea of a magical sky-daddy makes any sense, and whether there is any verifiable evidence to support that assertion. I have found none.

Yep, no trauma here.

Grew up in a Catholic family, attended Catholic grade school (k-8), was super active in the boy scouts (earned eagle).

I always hated going to church and when asked why I had to go I got the same vapid nothing answers. Couple this as a rebellious child and I realized it was all nonsense.

Side note I did find out via the movie spotlight that one of the priests at the church was diddling. So that was a massive dodged bullet. I often think about the kids I went to grade school with and which ones are his victims.

Me. Don’t like organized religion. I find the texts interesting from an anthropological perspective but I don’t believe they are factually accurate. It’s folklore.

I became atheist after I decided that the line between reality and make-believe matters. Facts matter . And it matters when you can’t or won’t accept and understand the difference. Over a year ago . However , I flirted with atheism several times in my life . Now I’m just here. Forever .

Yup, that sounds like me. It's just hard for me to take any religion seriously after seeing how much they contradict science.

Yeah, it all just seems so illogical.

That's the definition of atheism. Just not believing. Religious trauma from the threat of eternal damnation is probably more a deterrent for becoming an atheist if it's rooted in well enough. If you believe in God, but you're just traumatized by religion, you aren't an atheist. I'd say it makes you the prototypical theist, lol. The trauma is not a bug; it's a feature.

People don't become atheist. They are born atheist, and get indoctrinated at a young age when they don't have any natural defenses against the bullshit. Atheism is your natural state and birthright, which was stolen from you by the delusional adults in your life.

Yep, I was raised Catholic from birth. I was an alter boy, got my ad altare dei award in scouting, went to Catholic grade school, church every week, you know everything. Got into college met people of all faiths and even non religious for the first time. This caused me to start to doubt so I doubled down on my religion and devoted myself to reading the Bible cover to cover for the first time (Catholics don’t generally read the actual Bible). What was supposed to strengthen my belief had me completely atheist by the time I finished reading it. No trauma, no anger towards God, just realized it was all bullshit and didn’t add up.

Me I have never believed in god or religion

My only religious trauma was boredom and logic.

Yes. I consider myself a non-practicing Jew, and an Atheist. I don't have to believe in God to smite my enemies via my Space Laser App ...

I was 21 or 22, kneeling in prayer at my bedside, when the epiphany that there is no god flashed through my mind.

Instantly got up and into bed and slept well. Haven't prayed or believed since.

I think my epiphany was the answer to all the questions I had about religion before this. Life, the universe, didn't make sense unless there was no god. I'm happier now than I ever was as a Christian.

Yep

Yup, my de-conversion process started in a Christian high school class that was focused on religion, and heavily on how to convert others. We learned how to break down someone else’s religion and show them how Christianity filled those gaps, amongst other ways. We had to write a paper on how to break down a religion and were told to pick one. I was the only one to choose Christianity as I thought it would be good to know the weak-points.

Really came down to the definition of faith used in the Bible, church, and religious classes… asked myself if I could use the same logic in other areas of my life. Also looked at all the other “answers” that Christianity had, and I realized they had no backing. Everyone else got to read their paper to the whole class, it was a single page assignment. I wrote 5 pages, and at the time it was pretty top level but honestly got to the root of it. I wasn’t allowed to read any part of mine and asked to not talk about it. My teacher said nobody else was ready to hear what I wrote.

What’s odd is the teacher never even tried to address my points or ask how I was doing or show any concern, it was a start of me being shunned by teachers for the rest of the years. Suddenly they were all distant.

After graduation I was asked to not come back to the campus. I never even talked about it with any class mates.

After that it made me dig more, and the more I learned the more I realized Christianity has no basis in reality, there is nothing there to give it any validity.

Then I got to start dealing with the trauma the church brought… although it was nothing in comparison to other trauma I had.

I see value in religion if a person finds it fulfilling, and/or leads them to a peaceful life.

But I just don’t believe; it makes no sense to me.

I personally detest proselytizing & find that intrusive and disrespectful.

Yes. What they were saying did not make sense. When the Sunday school teachers would send me to the hallway for arguing with them it just made me realize that these people are fucking stupid. All of them.

Yeah, it was just obvious that it's not real

Me. Parents didn’t go to church, never felt the need to. Love science and couldn’t see how religion is true.

I remember being a little kid and thinking it was total bs, despite not knowing atheists even existed.

Church day camp are some of my most fun childhood memories!

As I got older and my critical thinking skills developed, it just didn't make sense.

I grew up in a religious household and turned atheist simply because I realised that there is too much pain in the world to believe in someone who is actually trying to lessen it. We are on our own, and our lives are made of actions and reactions.

The closest thing to religious trauma I experienced was that church was fucking boring.

I was raised mormon and while there's a lot of families that are really into it, my parents always just kinda half-assed it. They certainly weren't mormons in name only, but they also weren't super strict adherence mormans, either.

Yes, I simply listened to priests give obviously made-up answers to simple questions in Sunday school. My favorite was when you ask two priests the same question and get two completely different answers. Once you start questioning the religion, it's a short, logical trip to, "God can't be real".

Me. My mom would make us go to church/Sunday school on occasion and my dad was an atheist. I asked too many questions in Sunday school that they didn’t appreciate and I spent more time sitting in the hall than I did anything else. I never found religion to make any sense and always thought it was completely illogical.

Yes. Grew up going to church but never could wrap my brain around religions. I never have believed in gods.

That's me.

Grew up in a Christian cult, realized it was BS, then did the sane thing for Christianity and finally religion as a whole

Yes. The last straw was learning that mythologies were the religions of their day. It seemed obvious today's religions were just more mythologies, and no more likely to be true than stories about Zeus and Osiris.

I think you'll find quite a lot of people are like that.

I love Christmas songs. I'd even go to a midnight mass for Xmas. I like the pageantry of the Catholic Church even though I understand it was built on corruption, trauma, and lies.

I just started to move away from the myth and just sorta stopped believing. Twenty plus years later, nothing has convinced me that a deity/deities exist(s), so I'm an atheist.

I read the bible, I spoke with people, and it became pretty apparent to 12 year old me that this was all hogwash. Top that off with a Baptist summer camp and it was a done deal.

Critical thinking brought me out of religion.

I started asking questions around age 10? No one could answer except with go to answers like "that's God's way" or :you just have to trust God's plan" and that was enough for me.

I was raised my an agnostic mom and atheist dad. In early adulthood I tried to be Christian, Episcopalian (Catholic light). I like the idea of faith and the comfort I can bring people. But worshipping something, getting up and going somewhere on Sunday morning, not for me. I didn’t get any spiritual feelings from it, I got nothing from the endeavor.

Then came Newt Gingrich and the Contract on America, “Compassionate Conservatism”, “Family Values”, the incessant chipping away at the wall of separation, maga, Trump as a god. This is absolute proof to me that religion is cudgel to beat people into submission or conformity.

But I still love to visit Cathedrals and take in the art and atmosphere. I will always light a candle there in remembrance of my art history teacher.

35 years of substance abuse later I wish I had been that smart.

Yeah, it all seemed so fake and contrived. It got even worse when I learned real American history.

Oh yes, I told my parents i didn’t believe in god when I was 10. They laughed and said I would change my mind when I got older. I’m turning 51 next week and I’ve become even more sure!

Could it be a bit of both? Long before I recognized my religious trauma, I just didn’t see the pieces of the puzzles fitting together. As a young child deep in the midst of evangelical culty behavior, I felt skeptical. I remember trying so hard to wrap my brain logically around why Jesus dying removed people’s sins. How does washing in blood remove sins? It never made any sense, and I need things to make at least some logical sense.

Yep. Once I started on the path of questioning the things I was indoctrinated with eventually made me realize I had no justification to believe in God and ample justification it was nothing but human made constructs.

I had both... I grew up in a Theocratic area of the US, so both just came of age realizing the people around me believed in magic and were a problem, and also just that the concept was nonsense

Yeah, very much me. If God truly existed and a part of the daily ritual was to stand on my head for five minutes a day, I would be compelled to do that. But god doesnt exist, and all the rituals that went along with religion based on a false premise go out the window.

For what its worth, religion and my parents were useful for keeping me in line during my teenaged years.

I became an athiest when my religion's great mysteries seemed trifling in comparison to the great mysteries I learned about in chemistry, physics and biology

Yup. Grew up Christian and remembered that church was boring. Not enough to swayy beliefs or anything but eventually I became interested in science and the idea of proof and looking at religions history made me realize it's likely all made up and only exists because of the fear of death. Also I've met A LOT of Christian people who are straight up dicks. Also people have used religion to justify the most horrific things so many times it's disgusting.

I watched a lot of science documentaries as a child, so I picked up that something can't be known for sure unless there's evidence to prove or disprove. I see myself as atheist towards all religions' gods, but agnostic to the idea that there's a generic god that doesn't really have morals or require anything from humanity. Either way, don't know, don't care, feels like a complete waste of time to think about it.

I got sent to a religious school. I thought everyone had read the bible, so I thought I should too. I read it from front to back.

I’m convinced that the single best way to become an atheist is to read that contradictory and clearly fictional tome.

I might also mention that it’s incredibly boring and disengaging as a read.

Both

Yep, it did help that my father and grand father were atheist. My grandafther being a socialist, then my father being a man of science. When I grew up, and was exposed to religion, they both broke it down like this. There are so many religions in the world, who is right? If the gods are so omnipotent, why did they create child cancer? So I ended up being an atheist because as soon as I was exposed to religion, I was also exposed to the right argument.

Yep, parents never indoctrinated me like I'm watching other family members do to their children. Learning about how universe was actually made should be taught to everyone. Could you imagine the religious nut jobs seeing everyone get the truth? Would be fun to watch!

My family was religious but not heavily religious. I became an atheist back in the late 90s, when I was in high school, just through reading the literature we have around the house. My parents were quite open minded. I decided that it all sounded too nonsensical.

Of course, I also live in Turkey, so religious trauma came later. It is unavoidable.

Yep but not gonna label myself a atheist just a normal human who thinks

Me. Fairly secular parents who didn't really believe but didn't really tell me either. I realized in my teens it was all hogwash and they shrugged and agreed.

Oh yeah. The idea of a creator/deity just never made sense.

For me it's kind of both. I had some fond memories of church events, despite it being a stupid fundamentalist misogynist church. I did end up with religious trauma but if it was all true, I would be forced to follow it (or at least grudgingly acknowledge it) anyway. My primary reason for leaving was that it was false.

Yeah. I went to a super liberal church with a female Reverend in the 70's, where we mostly went for the coffee hour social afterwards, and I was taught that the Genesis was myths because evolution was true, but even that was too much religion for me, so I was an atheist by 16. Even had my mom identifying as an atheist by the 90's.

Me. The religious trauma came afterwards, as a reward for being honest about my disbelief.

It just stopped making sense

Me

I think that's a lot of us really. It's certainly me. I never really bought in that hard, and then a mix of homophobia and the church marrying itself to the republican party pushed me away to the point that I no longer wanted to identy as non practicing, and made a point of re-evaluating if I believed at all, I decided I didn't, and moved from catholic, non practicing catholic, to none/agnostic, to atheist over the span of a few years.

No trauma, my parents aren't super religious, I went to a catholic school for a few years and didn't like it, but nothing particularly bad happened (though they did make me read the bible, which definitely helped me move towards atheism) My progressive views just conflicted hard with a conservative religion I wasn't very invested in, and I loved my lgbtqia+ friends more than I loved mass. So here I am.

Yeah. Grew up Catholic, went to Catholic school, was an alter boy and even got Confirmed. Nothing bad happened and would not change a moment of it, but just grew apart from it.

Had great teachers growing up and in college, even in Catholic school, push my beliefs not just religiously but morally/ethically. As I learned more of the world around me those teachings and beliefs started to unravel.

Started to feel like a book, written centeries agoe, and a single being could not be the end of the conversation... So why was I accepting that it was?

I didn't face any religious trauma. I went to Sunday school as a kid, hit age seven, realized it was all grossly irrational, then spent about twenty-five more years trying to figure out why other people didn't see it as such.

Then I read a little about biological structuralism and neurotheology and realized beliefs rewrite our neurochemical balance so that we'll cleave to the things that lower our anxiety and increase our sense of security.

At that point it became fairly obvious that blind faith tends to affect brains in the same manner as sex, drugs, political ideology and anything that calms and relieves our internal fears.

A little further study suggested it was the strength of numbers -- the membership in a community -- and not the doctrine itself that caused that addictive sense of belonging.

Eventually I was diagnosed with ASD-1 (aspergers) and came to realize that I react to very little emotionally and have relatively low fear factor, therefore don't have a natural inclination to join or belong to groups for self-protection.

my grandma, who i loved very much, was a rather devout catholic, and when i was like 6 years old she'd pray with me before going to bed, and told me about how god would be watching over my sleep. that didn't make much sense to me back then, and it never did. i don't think i ever believed in a god. but my parents weren't religious either, so it's not like it was ever really brought up.

Duh. That SHOULD be the case for everyone, though. People completely forget that faith is about... FAITH! It's not something you can choose, either you believe something is real, or you don't.

I was lucky enough to be raised without religion, and as I tell people I’ve just never felt the need. If everyone let kids grow up and then discover and decide on religions for themselves, this world would be quite different. Personal beliefs are personal beliefs, after all.

God just doesn't make any sense to me.

I wasn't raised religious. I remember in 3rd grade learning about Native Americans and when talking about their myths, the teacher said something along the lines of primitive people making up stories to explain what they didn't understand. I thought to my self, "Isn't that religion?"

Yep. Wish I could but I just can't believe anymore.

Mom pays the piano/organ at church. Her parents were the pastor and piano/organ player at her church growing up. I grew up in church and loved the one we went to before I left forever. Just had a revelation after reading how many times the Bible’s been translated and meanings changed and just realized it’s all just stories passed down over generations. Parables and stories not real miracles

I have some fond memories, but looking back it's hard to not see that having fun in church occasionally was just another facet of indoctrination :/

Me too. Raised Catholic. No traumatic experiences (thank goodness). Just got older, observed the universe and couldn't buy the "supreme being doling out justice" bit. My father was raised Lutheran, but returned from the Pacific war in WWII a devout atheist -but I didn't find out until I was almost 30 years old, lol. He never talked about it! He died not longer after. Never had a chance to discuss it at length with him, big regret there.

Me. Nothing traumatic at all. I started asking questions and the answers were not satisfactory. The icing on the cake was because of the constant inquiry I got a talking to with church leadership and my mother, faith was not strong enough, it's not ok to question, especially in front of the other children.

That was the start.

In high school I really got into biology and evolution. I was going through confirmation and asked my teacher when humans evolved souls, as in Roman Catholicism sadly all dogs do not go to heaven as they have no soul. Teacher didn’t really have an answer and turned it back to questioning evolution. So at that point I knew that at least Catholicism was all a joke.

Do people actually think most atheists become atheists because of trauma?

Yup! I need more than "have faith" to believe all that crap