Your "testimony"

[JulietEcho]

When friends from my past find out that I'm an atheist, often through facebook, I tend to get immediate questions about it, usually along the lines of, "What happened!?" or something a bit more calm.

I've thought about keeping a copy of my story on hand to simply copy and paste in these situations, but I find myself unsure about what to leave in and what to leave out. Most of us have stories that are anything but brief (unless we're talking about JasonO's type of "brief" lol), and I don't want to overwhelm people with more information than necessary.

So I write something different every time, depending on the person who asked and whether they asked for any details. Some of the different things I may or may not include are:

- The way I felt about religion growing up as a Christian
- The different things I read during the stages of transitioning from religious to atheist
- The way I feel about religion now
- The effect my atheism has had on my life choices
- The particular arguments that I find convincing/unconvincing
- The reason I'm happy to share when people ask my about atheism
- An offer to gladly answer follow-up questions or share more details if asked.

There are definitely more I'm forgetting. The only thing I always share, for sure, is my "breaking point" that essentially made the different between "theist" and "atheist" for me (we've had threads about this, but I'm too lazy to look them up right now), which was finding out about all the different world religions that other people believe so fervently and realizing that I didn't have any more proof for my own religion than I did for the ones I'd never heard of.

So, when you guys get asked this question, what do you make sure to include? What, if anything, do you leave out?

[wall0645]

So, when you guys get asked this question, what do you make sure to include? What, if anything, do you leave out?

I've never actually been asked. My transition was from implicit atheism to explicit atheism, if you know what I mean (being aware of my atheism, I guess). I was never a Christian.

However, when I tell my "story" I always include what turned me from an implicit atheist to an explicit one. This was reading in a packet given to me in 8th grade something along the lines of "20,000 BC: Man invents religion to escape fear of death." Whenever I tell this to theists, they seem very amazed.

I also tend to include that I was a very logically-minded child, being very good at math and science, and that the whole idea of religion never really made sense to me. Perhaps my experiences of going to church a few times and being really creeped out.

Nowadays I'll also mention my transition from "militant" atheist to "friendly" atheist (though there's always room to improve in the "friendly" category! ). This tends to make the theist or whoever's asking more comfortable.

And, depending on my audience, I'll also mention my experiments with Buddhism. (This place seems interested in religion, so I mentioned it in my story in the appropriate forum.)

My story is not very interesting. I was fortunately not indoctrinated by my parents

[hoverFrog]

I've never believed in gods. I don't think I'd even bother to talk about that bit of non-news if it wasn't for those loonies flying a plan into the twin towers 8 years ago and the subsequent rise in religious feeling by the US and others. Honestly though people tend not to ask me. I guess I'm not as approachable as you are.

[Neon Genesis]

I bring up my church's ban on homosexuality and how my realizing I was gay led me to question the morality of hell, the authority of God, and the effectiveness of prayer. This then led me to studying the scriptures more and realizing all the barbaric behavior of God in the OT that there didn't seem to be any justification for and to this day, I still haven't heard a justification for it which was pretty much the nail in the coffin for my faith. I floated around in agnosticism for awhile because I didn't understand how the universe could exist without God and I had misconceptions of atheists being dogmatic angry people. I finally accepted atheism when I read God Is Not Great and Hitchens had quoted Laplace as basically saying he didn't have a use for God and that's when I became an atheist.

[Chal]

I just say that I've never really seen a reason to believe, and things have worked out pretty well so far. If pressed, I'll point out problems that I have with the various beliefs.

[capt'n john]

While I was raised in a Christian household and went to Sunday school, I had serious troubles believing the bible stories I was told, particularly the one about original sin. I knew that I 'had committed enough "sins" on my own that I didn't need extra ones from things that happened before anyone in my family was born'. I went through a long period where I wondered about how what the minister was saying in church was relevant to me and my beliefs. At university I took a very interesting class in logic, and I came to find out that the minister used circular logic to win his arguments with me and once I had been show the fallacy I finally started winning the discussions. By this time I had a good grounding in the Bible and was able to win most arguments on logic alone. It came as a shock to me to realize that my friend, the minister, had wasted his life and was trying to ensure that I would waste mine by following him into the ministry. I ended up in teaching and have to a large degree remained, as far as much of world is concerned, just a non-church goer. I am an atheist, a fact that is only known to a small circle of friends, and of course, my family. It is most pleasing that my friends accept me and my beliefs as they are and they do not try to change me. In return I do not try to change them.

[Julia]

I have more often been asked why I am not a Christian rather than why I am an atheist. My short answer is usually that I cannot believe that people are inherently evil, 'sinful' and deserving of an eternity of torture. My short 'proof' of that is people always come up with an excuse or justification (even if it's only to themselves) for doing something wrong or hurtful, but no justification is needed for doing something good or kind. It seems logical to me that if someone has to come up with an excuse to do something bad or hurtful then they are going against their nature and therefore their nature is NOT evil or 'sinful'. Also, I cannot believe in or worship a diety that would torture anything for an eternity; I find the concept disgusting. Beyond that, I have simply do not believe in god and I cannot force myself to belive something I don't think is true and I find religion to be illogical and/or in direct conflict with my understanding of the world.