Did you choose to be an atheist? CAN one choose to be an atheist? [Spirituality & Religion]

I think you choose to believe or not. I also believe we should ponder these questions with a humble heart.

I never chose.. although i wouldn't consider myself an atheist, i just spent my whole childhood at a catholic boarding school being taught about christianity.. well often having it beat into me because i asked too many questions... just trying to understand and get it to make sense... and day and night and everyone else seemed to get right into it, but it just didn't work for me. I never rejected it. I actually really wanted to become a christian so i could feel normal like everyone else around me. But it all felt like people talking about a vacation they'd experienced together that i hadn't been on. I could listen and think wow, that seems amazing. But i could neither believe or disbelieve it because i wasn't part of their experience and never had my own.

I know I didn't choose to be. You have to be convinced of something to beleive it. I find it ironic that people with religious beliefs do not actually know how belief works. I mean if someone could prove to me something exists that would be awesome. The scientists in me would love to have a whole new reality to explore and be comforted that something cares about us. But no one has been able to convince me so I can't believe anything.

[quote]I can't decide that i believe that which i do not believe.
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[big]WHATTTTTTT[/big]

If one does not believe in an omnipotent God then by default one is an Atheist. No need to decide.

Some people need the “comfort” of religion. I have no problem with it, as long as they don’t try to impose it, or their moral codes, on others.

The parting of the sea may be real. At the time, the water was pretty shallow. If you build a model, to simulate what happens if the wind was blowing, for a few days, like it does in certain conditions, it can create a semi-tunnel through the shallow water. That would be science

depends, some choose to be an atheist because they were taught religion & simply didn’t want to follow it later in life. Some never had religion in their life to begin with so they didn’t really have to choose to be an atheist

You can and I did.

I was raised agnostic, I became an atheist.