Raised protestant Christian. What made me leave the religion: 1. debating a militant atheist who asked questions I couldn't answer 2. textual criticism and apologetics classes I took during my biblical studies course 3. intellectual curiosity. that sounds conceited but you do have to have some form of it to question everything you have been taught up until then.

what happened next is not very exciting. I worked up the courage to tell my mom and the church, stopped attending church services, and had a second puberty of sorts (many such cases!). I'm on good terms with everyone in my family, they respect my position and I respect theirs. No coercion of any kind.

I'd call myself agnostic today. I don't 100% with absolute certainty rule out the possibility that there might be a higher power after all, but I live my daily life as if there isn't any.

I think I was 16. I got to the point where I couldn't convince myself I believed in a magic man in the sky anymore. My mom was upset with my decision but she understood. She since has lost her faith I believe.

I was raised Mormon.

I remember chilling in the computer lab at university when I came across someone's Jehova's Witness deconversion story online. It was so eerily similar to my experience that I couldn't stop thinking about it. Because it wasn't my religion, I was able to see it the way an outsider might see my own.

It broke something inside me irreparably. Faith became a dirty word. All conservative values instantly vanished. I guess this conflict had been beneath the surface for some time but finding that story lit a match.

I mean what kind of religion needs to brainwash its members not to seek out material critical of itself? What kind of religion puts you in a room, alone, as a teenager, with a 50-year-old man who is asking you about your sexual habits? What kind of religion has billions of dollars in real estate investments? What kind of religion requires you to ring people's doorbells and pester them about your religion? What kind of religion asks you to (despite how they phrase it) hate gay people?

I stopped having anything to do with the church after that. When it comes to integrity, I can't pretend. I was able to hold my ground against all the creepy shit that happens when you leave a cult. And now, 20+ years later, I rarely even think about it.

What made me do it was the unending stream of contradictions in the bible internally, between the Bible and reality, and between the Bible and what people say is in the bible in order to fix the other two.

It's the old "nobody could show me why I should believe any of it", including me. And the more I looked for answers, the more problems and contradictions I found.

I have plenty of contact with my family, my parents are both great people and it helps a lot that they're not so much religious as that they think "its important". My more extended family has made a few tries, I occasionally get into discussions with a few aunts, uncles and cousins, but they're not exactly good at it. It's just looping around the same old terrible arguments that quickly end when I ask them to show that it was Jahweh who created the universe, and not Bob.

The church made the biggest effort to get me back, but they have a financial incentive, unlike everyone else. It was an incredible pain in the ass to get removed from church rolls before GDPR.

Sudden realization it was all bullshit and I'd rather sleep in on Sundays. I was 7 or 8.

I was baptized as a protestant Christian and also hat my confirmation when I was young, but I have been an atheist for long time.
I left as soon as I started to work, as I needed to pay more than 500€ church taxes per year. After I left, I didn't have to pay that amount anymore, that's about it.

For me it was the fundamental contradiction between God being both good & all powerful. If (S)he created everybody exactly the way they are, how are they to condemn anyone to hell? Some people are born incapable of communicating or understanding anything, some people are born with their wires crossed and are just evil, some are born in a time/place where they never hear "the good news". Why would a good and loving God condemn them forever for being exactly what (S)he designed them to be?

The Christian Bible I grew up with was rife with examples of people God created and designed specifically to be antagonists so they could be punished: Cain, Pharoah, Ahab & Jezebel, Judas Iscariot, Ananias & Sapphira, The Beast & Antichrist, etc.

I left the religion I was born into only inside my mind. I still go through every "ritual" that comes with it mechanically but subconsciously I lack belief.

I get lots of support and positive emotions from my community. It's not worth losing it.

Confirmation = Graduation >.>