How do you know you're not just going through a phase?

How do you know you're not just going through a phase?

"You're just going through a phase."

A lot of religious people love to say this about atheists, especially young ones. They'll find God eventually. They're just rebelling.

As if we become atheists out of spite, just to make everyone mad. It's a really dumb thing to say.

Maybe some of you watching this are literally new atheists. Or maybe you're on the fence. How do you know when you're a real atheist and not just going through a phase? How do you know when you're finally comfortable as an atheist?

- You're not afraid of hearing information that might prove you wrong.

Atheists read the Bible. Christians don't always read the God Delusion. We're looking for evidence that might prove us wrong and realizing it's just not there.

Pastors warn you against watching secular media or listening to secular music. The Christian Right tells you to boycott shows that challenge religious views. They promote abstinence-only sex education because they think knowledge about condoms and birth control is bad for you.

Meanwhile, atheists will directly quote what religious people say and what their holy books say. If you want to become an atheist, just open up your Bible. We want you to judge it for yourself instead of hearing it through our filter.

We're not afraid of being challenged because we're confident about our beliefs.

So if you have no concerns about hearing what the opposition has to say, you're probably out of any atheist phase. You're just an atheist.

- You get excited when you learn new information.

I think one of the most respectable things you can say as an atheist is, "I don't know the answer to that... let's see if we can figure it out!"

It's not enough to enjoy magic anymore. You wanna know how they did the trick.

If something seems improbable, you're not going to just take it on faith anymore. You're going to see if there's a rational, reasonable explanation to it. That's what drives you now.

The same thing applies to people who tell you they're gay or asexual or voting for Rick Santorum. Why would anyone admit it if it wasn't true?

So to the parents and religious allies out there, if people tell you they're atheists, believe them. It's not an easy thing to admit. And it's infuriating for people like me when someone suggests we really didn't think this one through when that's exactly what led us to shed our faith.

I mean, how long does a phase have to last before you accept that it's not just temporary?

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[externaledition]

I grew up as a Christian child. My parents weren't to devoted but they would never deny their belief in god. We were really close to the pastor of the current church we attended so I was expected to behave, as well as becoming a child of God. Later we moved and my family stopped attending church. I would still do the occasional prayer and such but wasn't very much into it. That was until I started attending church with my uncle. I got sucked into the religion and did my best to study, i was in there for three years until I started doubting my fate in God. It was hard to leave the religion since everyone knew me and once again expected much of me. I stopped going to church and became Agnostic. I started doing lots of research on Christianity and eventually expanded to more religions. I've always loved stories and whenever I meet someone from a new religion I get this incredible feeling of excitement and start asking questions on and on, i get such a tremendous feeling of joy I cannot describe. I've still been Agnostic afraid of calling myself an Atheist for fear in how my Family and friends would judge. However this video today gave me a push and well i proudly call myself an Atheist! That's about

[UltimateWaifuXD]

You know you're an atheist when you're able to tell when church leaders start using their mind control games. Like when they say stuff like "Lay your life down for Jesus" or "You are nothing without Jesus".

[WWZenaDo]

Oh, this is one of my favorites, right up there along with "Satan planted dinosaur fossils to deceive us!"

[ReMpFreddie]

sometimes i wish there was a god but i just refuse to live in a fantasy world

[Shoebill]

After watching my first video by the Amazing Atheist, I instantly became atheist. It wasn't being agnostic, I was full blown atheist within the span of about 5 minutes.

[daviddavis]

why didnt this video exist 9 months ago when i came out to my mother and she said it was just a phase

[theatheistpaladin]

My atheist "phase" will end when I get evidence of god.

[garrett]

Now that my mother and sister know I'm an atheist, they like to try to convert me back. They love to tell me there are "thousands of well known scientists who are religious" and they get PISSSED when I tell them that any real scientist wouldn't accept religion without evidence because they think I'm calling them stupid.... which I suppose I am... It's funny because they think I'm not listening to reason but the reality is that THEY aren't... hot damn this shit gets stressful.

[BassbaitGG]

My atheism is a phase. The phase ends when I die.

If someone tells me "there's a man outside your house", I'll be like "holy shit really?" and if I check, I won't find him there, and I'll be like "you're full of shit".

Now, if someone ASKS me "do you believe there is a man outside your house?" My answer will be "I don't know??? I don't really think about that".

God is the man outside my house. When I look for him, he's not there. And when I am not asked whether or not he's there, I don't even think about him.

[reece]

I wouldn't say that every atheist gives it a lot of thought, I've been an atheist since the day I was born and I only started thinking about it when I got to high school

[fnafcomics]

I've been an Atheist for 3-4 years now and my little brothers friends (which are like a year or two younger than me) are convinced I'm going through a phase, yet when ever I actually try to defend my argument they just close there ears (metaphorically of course if they did it literally..my brothers hanging out with the wrong mental age group) and say "you're just going through a phase dumbass" hell even my very Christian mom realized its not "just a phase" after a while of her knowing about my atheism.

[eleventythymes]

How about a video comparing secular & religious charities?

[servals]

I became an Atheist because I listened to the preacher reading the bible when I was 8. Even back then I was able to call bullshit.

[darkminer]

I like to remind myself of what a great scientist once said. (knowing my luck, I probably got the quote wrong... but that's the gist of what he said)
"We don't know, but that's what makes science so great. We keep striving, keep going, keep looking for whatever answers we can find."
-Bill Nye

[TheBeastTroller]

Thank you so much for this! I've become an Atheist in the past year, helped me so much with questions, still looking at both sides but I'm looking over the fence.

[BrianPvanOers]

Thankful I live in the Netherlands, almost half the population is atheïst

[Over_Toasted]

Why couldn't you speak at my school...or be one of my teachers? You are fascinating!

[bobidstein]

good stuff.
31 years a believer, and now coming to terms with reality.

[RbullT]

I started heavily questioning religion at the age of about 14 and chose to be an atheist in later high school years (so year 11-12 (which for those who don't know, in Australia, that's like at the age of 17-18)). I'm 20 now and I'm happy I've escaped the grasp of religion. My choice had sprang from a wide range of events both in my life and in human history. I remember crying and being terrified in my early years because my mum didn't believe in God, so she would go to hell and not be with me in heaven. That's something that no one should have to think about.

And seeing all the discrimination, hatred, violence that religion has caused in our history and in our present, I just don't want to be apart of something like that. Just learning and witnessing how blind and close minded people become, is a massive turn off. I acknowledge that I live my life in accordance to some religious beliefs because there are some admirable human qualities that are taught (do not murder is the big one). But religion is so contradictory, which is why the do not murder thing is blurred in so many religions.

Basically, self discovery is what turned me off religion. If you don't believe in my religion, you'll suffer eternal damnation

[Grievousnw]

When I was 12 and told my mother I was an atheist she was just like: "Yeah, whatever. It's just a phase." Now 4 years later I think I proved that it is not.