Who Was The First Atheist You Ever Met?
The Friendly Atheist posed an interesting question today:
Who was the first atheist you ever met?
This question takes me back to my childhood, specifically when I was 11 and told my mother than I didn’t want to get confirmed because I didn’t believe in God. Luckily my family have never been one to pressure me into anything, and although she didn’t like the idea, she left it to that. Belief in God is a personal decision at the end of the day.
Of course at that point I would describe myself as agnostic, not atheist. I was more unsure about God and I wasn’t prepared to outright deny his existence. The first true atheist I met at that time was a boy called George who had also been brought up in a relaxed environment, but had completely denied the existence of God. It was probably due to talks with him that made me the atheist I am today.
Since then I’ve met numerous atheists and agnostics, and as soon as I came to uni, I formed an “Atheist Union” with a few friends, which has now grown into a recognised group on campus. Next Thursday we are debating the Christian Union over whether Biblical Christianity is credible in the modern world, which of course I will blog about in detail afterwards.
So, who was the first atheist you ever met? Did meeting them persuade you to become one as well, or were you already atheist?
I was the first atheist I ever met. Coming from a small town of sorts, I did not meet another until college. This was despite the fact that I was very vocal in my disbelief.
My grandparents have always been quite outspoken atheists, but as a child I didn’t notice it so much. But I guess it helped me realize as I grew older that being religious wasn’t necessarily the norm. I didn’t become an atheist so much as realizing that was what I had been all along, to paraphrase Christopher Hitchens.
I just found you from the Atheist Blogroll, and I’m stopping by to tell you that I’m really impressed with what you are doing here. We could always use more quality atheist blogs, and you are off to a great start. I’ll do what I can to send some traffic your way.
He was the teacher of religion in school.He was great atheists teaching islam in best way that we understood what was mohammed and how he made koran.
I would love to see the debate.
I’ve met a lot of people who claim they are atheist, but I have never met an Atheist who is willing to live out his/her atheist beliefs. I don’t think it is possible. To be an absolute atheist is unlivable.
ed,
The 10 minute section that is covered can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs3RKZjSzYg
I’m not sure if the entire programme is viewable somewhere.
-Adrian
Actually, my girlfriend was the first agnostic I met. I never did like talking about religion with her at the time. The first time I had to really look at my beliefs is when she asked me if I thought she was going to hell. I had to answer truthfully and say I never thought about it … but yes. I had to really think about it … my girlfriend was much kinder than any Christians I had ever met. She didn’t have any ulterior motive for doing things like a majority of the Christians I knew. Yet she would suffer eternally for not believing in something? Yet I would be spending eternity with fickle minded, science-rejecting, minority hating, Muslim-intolerant, self-righteous Christians?
The more I thought about it, the more heaven looked like hell.
“The more I thought about it, the more heaven looked like hell.”
That reminds me of something the historian Richard Carrier once said:
“To me, going to Heaven would be worse than going to Hell, because you’d be there, all the time knowing that there are millions of people suffering below you, and you are powerless to stop their suffering.”
My parents. I was seven.
I’d just finished reading The New English translation of the Gospel accordng to St. John, issued to every school pupil in the British Empire. A good read, My parnes also read at night. I went to ask each seperately. “Do you belive in god?”
No they each said, wihout a thought
And so began the living nightmare.
I would like to add that the majority of people are “fickle minded, science-rejecting, minority hating, Muslim-intolerant, and self-righteous”, regardless of religion. It just so happens that the majority of people (in the US) are Christian and thus the majority of those kind of people would remain Christian because of their inability to reject false ideas.
My point was that heaven is illogical if the condition is that you believe in a specific god.
I’m not sure who the first atheist I ever met was, because most people wouldn’t admit it even a generation ago. I suspect there were a lot of us, but no one would break ranks. Here is an amusing thought on the topic:
http://letterstoayoungmisanthrope.blogspot.com/
I was born agnostic. When I was younger I used to wonder whether or not there was a god (no particular religion). I don’t remember ever answering the question for myself, but I eventually outgrew the need for an imaginary guardian. Nowadays I disbelieve in any and all gods with the same fervor (that is to say, no fervor at all) and same conviction (lots) that I disbelieve in unicorns and dragons.
My dad was an atheist, so my brother and I just grew up that way. We met lots of other atheists at a Unitarian Universalist Church that we started going to. In middle school, I had 3 close friends that were atheist. In high school, about 10. This was in San Antonio, TX. Now I go to UT-Austin, and I know about 50 atheist fellow students, not to mention most of my professors.