Hey i became an athiest about a year ago and have been reflecting on how my life has changed since I finally could no longer justify beleving in god. I no longer feel the need to attend church nor do I try to defend my past faith (christianity). But i have on the other hand come into friction on occasion with other member's of my family and to a lesser extent friend's.

My question to the athiest member's of vgchartz is if you had a faith why did you leave it and how has your life changed since becoming an athiest?

Please no trolling

PS: I do not claim their is not god but rather i will only believe the existence of a god with proof of which I see none.

Sorry, I can't help you in this. I grew up atheist and never picked up a religion (although the gods of the Olymp are pretty cool - and Loki). Most of my friends, my family and people at work are atheists. So I have no conflict with religious people - I pretty much don't know any.

I don't know if I ever had a faith, exactly. I suppose as a kid I took everything I heard at my church for granted until I just didn't any longer. I don't think I ever had a real moment of stark revelation, more of a gradual realization that I can't accept things based entirely on faith without evidence.

When I quit going to church as a teenager, my dad was pretty disappointed but didn't try to stop me. He just hoped I would come around eventually. So thankfully there wasn't any friction with my parents.

And I can't say things have changed in my life because of it, except I that I no longer spend every Saturday in a place that has nothing to do with my beliefs.

I remember telling people from a young age that I was Christian simply because my family was Christian - parents, grandparents, etc. It wasn't until I was much older that I realized I had no idea what that really meant - my family had ceased going to church from when I was relatively young, perhaps before preschool.

I really began to question the meaning and everything about the Bible and such around 17 - I think the most astonishing thing for me was my dad telling me he didn't believe everything in the Bible - even mocking Noah's Ark. This truly gave me the freedom to continue to question, to seek out what truth I could in regard to evidence and logic. Continued pursuit led me to agnosticism through most of my early adult life. Only recently (maybe 2-3 years ago) to atheism in belief (while agnostic in matters of logic).

I will say this - the day I realized I didn't believe in God is the day I started holding myself accountable for my own actions and my life, rejecting any notion of aid/guidance from a high power. It was quite empowering and liberating. I hope one day all humans experience such freedom.

It's easy to avoid confrontation/arguments with religious folks - simply tell them you aren't religious. It shouldn't impact your family or friends if you're atheist though.

My family including my mum wanted me to believe in god, but from even my early days in primary school I learnt that it was all a load of bullshit, so I became an atheist and since I'm quite highly opinionated arguments do occur with the family from time to time, but nothing too major.

I think so, too. I have a suspicion that a lot of atheists who claim that the Christians in their lives are all out to get them are actually the ones who are instigating most of the confrontations, probably by lecturing and attacking the beliefs of others like so many internet atheists love to do.

I mean, I live in the Bible belt and I have literally never had a single confrontation over my lack of belief. Granted, it's not something I talk about a lot because what is there to say on the matter? "I don't believe in this thing that I've never seen" is pretty much where it begins and ends for me. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, there isn't much more to say let alone to get in a fight about.

neither atheism nor theism are supported by evidence, agnosticism is optimal choice

dodekatheon was certainly interesting, i personally admire ancient greek religion, the problem is very little is known, almost nothing remained

I don't think I ever truly believed the christian, specifically catholic, doctrine I was brought up with. I just kind of accepted that this was my family's accepted world view and I never really thought about. Maybe at one point I believed in God, or something like a God, but a couple years ago I must of seen or read something (I can't remember what) that got me questioning and actually thinking about religion and God for the first time, then I started watching and reading all the Hitchens/Dawkins etc. shit (never really cared much for Dawkins, Hitchens and Matt Dillahunty were big influences though) and did a whole lot of independant thinking and reflection... it all started to make very little sense, eventually I became totally unconvinced, and by default became an athiest. It was really the philisophical arguments that spoke to me the most, like THE1's latest thread for example ("Why create the Universe?").

go to youtube, pick just about any christian band that has any small bit of a secular following (i.e. rock, hardcore, rap, metal) and read comments, you'll find the droids you're looking for.....