Here’s mine.

5-14 Devout Catholic

15 Start questioning bible stories.

16 My mother dies. I question religion more. My 7 year old brother asks a preist why, with so many bad people in the world, did god have to take our mother? His answer: God works in mysterious ways, He needed her up there more than we needed her down here.

17-25 lost in religous limbo, read plenty of books about Atheism, and also read the bible.

26 I ask myself, Really? He needed her more than we did? Really? An Omnipotent being. I became agnostic.

27-38 Declare myself an Atheist.

39 After reading Richard Dawkins’ the god delusion I discover that I had been an agnostic all along. By the end of the book I was a strong atheist. And now I’m so mad that religion had me fooled for so long that even after declaring myself an atheist I was merely an agnostic… Hoping for life after death. What a horrible thing religion is…

40-? Atheist, Atheist, Atheist…

19-22: Went to college.

23: Had an epiphany during a talk with a visiting teacher from the church. Asked questions and received easily refutable answers.

24: A closet atheist to all but my boyfriend. Wish I had the courage to speak up.

~1970 (4) – While sitting in church, I am bothered by an insect and yell out, “I get that damn fly!” My first blasphemy.

1976 (10) – I join the Boy Scouts of America. For the next 8 years, I hike, camp, complete merit badges and increasingly mumble my way through the “reverent” part of the scout law and “promise to do my duty to God” part of the oath. I start leaving “under God” out of my recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance as well.

~1977 (11) – Catechism class. I learn to recite the books of the bible, 10 commandments and other rote memorization skills. Disappointingly, classes happen on the same nights that I would otherwise want to be going to the local amateur astronomy club meetings. The teacher’s lack of ability to answer fundamental cosmological questions fail to convince me of God’s creative powers.

1978 – (12) I begin playing Dungeons & Dragons and fail to be seduced into Satanism and human sacrifice.

1979 – 1981 (13+) On and off, I wear a pendant that used to be my grandfather’s that says “I am a Lutheran” and consider what that actually means. Failing to come up with any answer, I eventually abandon it.

1985 (19) – My Great Grandmother dies and I am so repulsed by the constant talk about Jesus and the mentioning of my great grandmother only at the beginning and end of the eulogy that I never attend another funeral service. Some funeral homes pipe the service into the parking lot over speakers so sometimes it’s a long walk.

1985 (19) – My girlfriend becomes pregnant and my mother insists that I visit the pastor for advise. By the end of the meeting I have received no productive or actionable advise, have revealed that I don’t believe in Christ or God and have been removed from the church rolls, ending two decades of membership in an organization in which I never had any faith.

1986 (20) – I work at a summer camp. The first few days are typical training stuff but when the kids arrive, the prayer before meals changes to Hebrew. I’m a bit pissed that I was not told this in advance but that could be ignored just as well as I ignored it at Boy Scout summer camp. What I disliked more is that the pizza always had onions and would walk a few miles into town on my days off for a proper meat lover’s pizza.

1987 (21) – I take a college course on political philosophy, read works by Martin Luther and finally learn what it means to actually be a Lutheran. It’s clear that I never was a Lutheran.

1997 (31) – I join the Universal Life Church so that I may perform Klingon weddings.

2005 (39) – I start blogging, including various rants about the stupidity of religion

2005 (39) – I listen to Penn Jilette’s “This I Believe” essay and abandon the last vestiges of agnosticism, comfortable thinking of myself not as an atheist; someone who does not believe in god, but as an anti-theist; one that believes that there is no god.

2007 (41) – Read Sam Harris and Dawkins.

So, you can see from my history that it was never really a de-conversion. I was never really brought into the Christian fold. Never convinced. An un-conversion. And, in some ways, I have my parents to thank for that. For whatever reason, religion was something that was done on Sundays and holidays. We didn’t say grace at dinner except at Thanksgiving and Christmas. There were no bedtime prayers. Religion wasn’t discussed about the house. It was go to church on Sundays, send the kids to Sunday school (because, where else would they be) and do the obligatory early teen catechism class. My faith was otherwise left to my own devices and, starting with my first grade year hiding behind the classroom piano reading fourth grade science books, religion never stood a chance.

6 Begin my life path as a huge science geek

7 Parents take me to mass and sunday school for the first time that I can remember. Questioned that if we were christian, (Lutheran to by precise), why did we have to go to the church two miles from the house instead of the one directly across the street. Get kicked out of sunday school first week after asking how the world can be 6000 years old when the pyramids are over 7000 years old, the wooly mammoth is over ten thousand years old, and the dinosaurs are much older than that.

9 Lost argument about going to church to the classic parental logic of “Because I Said So.”

9-14 Since my mom works early on Sundays, she “volunteers” me to be an acolyte/altar boy for the way-too-early 7am mass…on the only day of the week I got to sleep in. Fell asleep twice during mass, had to be

12-14 Forced to attend church and sunday school 3 times a month for three years, as well as one 3 hour “religious study class” per month. Almost became first person in church history to fail course. Only reason I passed was due to charitable work performed.

12-16 Baptist Minister moves in next door. Become friends with family. Invited to a couple of their church functions, and at an overnight church gathering hear about the “Rapture” for the first time. Question beliefs a little more, but keep most of my questions to myself.

14 Confirmed in Lutheran Church. Never attended a mass in that church again.

15 Have in-depth debates during Chem Lab with other students over existence of god. Realize I was an agnostic who wouldn’t admit it to himself.

17 “Dated” a mormon girl. Beginning of the “Mistake Era” in which I tried to make sense of religion.

18-21 First College Tour. During this time, I dated several different women of various backgrounds and faiths, and realized that I had issues with anyone who took their faith too seriously.

21 Dated and became engaged to a devout christian. Shut off the “religious portion” of brain around the same time she cheated on me.

22-24 “The Wandering Years” Went on a personal Walkabout, trying to find meaning. Never once questioned the existence of god, nor the non-existence. Essentially, I was a cowardly agnostic.

24-26 College Tour, Part II. Start dating, and eventually fall for a catholic girl. Mom comes down with Alzheimer’s.

27 Marry a catholic girl, in a catholic church, and in the process lie to several priests about my intentions to raise our kids catholic. Belief in any god is rather low at this point.

27 Realize in retrospect that I was already an Atheist when at my mom’s funeral I don’t believe a single person when they tell me “She’s gone on to a better place.” Almost tell my aunt off.

28 While viewing Reddit one day, I see a post about a movie about a Ben Stein movie called “Expelled” and watch it online. As a filmmaker, I am thoroughly offended by the one-sided view of this “documentary.” Brings me into the “Evolution Vs. ID” fight, and, by connection, leads me to several Atheist blogs and websites.

28 Finally break down and listen to “The God Delusion”. Am trying not to agree with Professor Dawkins, until he talks about the magical china teapot. Pull off of road and re-listen to that portion again. Come out to my wife as an Agnostic a couple nights later.

29 Come out as an Atheist to my wife and friends. To my wonder, no one was surprised.

29 Begin the “Angry Atheist” phase, eventually calm down and start focusing energies on making the world, or at least my world, a better place.

13: Critical faculties begin to kick in. Lying in bed, considering religion objectively for a few minutes before the finding the killer paradox – if god created the world who created god?

13-48: Issue settled I’ve never had any further doubts.

14-18 Some friends invited me to join a Christian youth group. It was fun and I met a lot of nice people and I liked the music. I enjoyed the emotions that I felt when attending the group, and decided that must be the power of God and became a Christian. When I was 16 I was good friends with an athiest. He was the first person to really challenge me on the idea that there was no God, and planted the seeds of doubt. I still hung on to religion.

19 – Started dating my now husband. He really challenged my views about religion (he is an atheist). We stopped discussing the issue for a while.

20 – now I decided that although religion made part of me feel good, I really didn’t beleive any of it. I eventually became more comfortable with saying I was an atheist. Now I am quite vocal about it.

7-16 – Did not go to church or think about it.

16-19 – Dated several Catholic girls but none too seriously and still didn’t go to church and did not want to but I didn’t know why.

19-29 - Lived life (partied, worked, partied some more), tried not to grow up. Still not going to church because I didn’t like getting up on Sunday. 8~P

29-40 – Got married, had kids. Started to question religion and evangelism in all its forms. Identified myself as agnostic.

40-44 (Present) – Became repulsed at all things religion and started to accept that I am an atheist. In the last year or so I have been reading and learning more about what it means to be an atheist and how to deal with fundamental Christians that surround me in my daily life.