The Real Reasons Why People Become Atheists

Production Team:
Producers: Andrew Aghapour, Andrew Henry
Writers: Will Gervais
Consultant Scholar: Hugh Turpin
Editor: Lachlan Davis
Production Assistant: Casey A'Hearn

Thumbnail art by @hotcyder
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images and Reuters

Scholars have identified the primary reason why theists become atheists: Credibility Enhancing Displays, or CREDs for short. CREDs are behaviors that people use to demonstrate their genuine commitment to a belief, value, or principle. These displays make the beliefs seem more credible and trustworthy to others, thereby enhancing the likelihood that observers will adopt similar beliefs or practices. Basically, if your co-religionists are not "practicing what they preach," there is a higher likelihood a theist will become an atheist.

This video was made possible through the support
of Grant 61928 from the John Templeton Foundation
managed by The Queen’s University of Belfast. The
opinions expressed in this publication are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views
of the John Templeton Foundation or The Queen’s
University of Belfast.

00:00 Is rationality a cause of atheism?
4:06 The Three Other Pathways to Atheism
4:51 Mentalizing
6:39 Motivation / Apatheism
8:29 inCREDulous Atheism

[rinna]

I was raised atheist because my grandpa had a fistfight with a priest and quit the church.

[rad]

For me it was because I heard some heavy metal on the radio one day, which caused me to be immediately hypnotised by Satan's evil mind control rays.

[michaeladu]

I was raised Anglican in Ghana but turned atheist in my late teens. I used to think so too, that critical thinking and reasoning turned me atheist, but as I got older my mind has changed on it somewhat. I know lots of theists who continue to believe despite being exposed to the same info that I got and even agreeing with some of it. I think it's because they genuinely love the religious communities that they're in and they love the lives they have as spiritual people, and frankly, good for them. Sadly, I grew up in a country where religious institutions are overly powerful and use that power to bully, persecute and oppress. When I tell people that I left because of the hypocrisy and self-righteousness, I get told that I only left because I want to sin. That's not a community that will ever welcome me and I'm not eager to be a part of it.

[pyrogriffin]

I was raised atheist by my family, because of a negative interaction my grandma had with their church. About a month after my grandfather left my grandma, right after WW2, and left her with their 5 kids, no support. The church leader told her she wasn’t being a good member of the church because she wouldn’t donate for a new parking lot for the church. My grandma was a kind woman, always happy and kind and understanding and empathetic. But when she told us that story, the amount of anger dripping from her voice even 40 years later was palpable.

I was never tempted to look to religion my entire life because the gods never seem to follow through with the things they are supposed to care about.

[wavyarmedman]

Completely wrong. I, like all other Atheists, became so after Atheia came down from the sky and revealed Her word to me.

[EvilSandwich]

The idea of apathetic atheism kind of reminds me of that Karl Marx quote that's always taken out of context. "Religion is the opiate of the masses." People often misinterpret that as him being critical of religious people. When in fact it was him expressing sympathy for the religious and being harshly critical of the upper class for making life so utterly miserable for the masses that they needed to turn to religion just to make the emotional pain stop. I wonder what he would have thought of the apathetic atheism theory.

[ericbond]

One of my favorite jokes inspired my view of atheism: A famed atheist has finished giving a lecture about non-belief in Dublin, when two men walk up to them. “We want to know whether you’re a Catholic or a Protestant?”

The atheist says “I’m an atheist, so I don’t think God exis-“

“Yeah, yeah, we know that. But is it the Catholic God or the Protestant God you don’t believe in?”

[MarkAhlquist]

As a young person surrounded by religious people, I remember realizing: "If I was born elsewhere I'd have a different religion". That simple thought eventually lead me to the obvious conclusion that all religion is made up.

[busterfixxitt]

So many of the former believers I've met were driven out of their faith by empathy; they couldn't square the idea of being loving with the teachings of their congregations.

Former minister Dan Barker recounts his mother, shortly after leaving her Christian faith saying, "I don't need to hate anymore!"

These folks saw their fellow congregants acting contrary to what they understood their faith to require.

[josephkoester]

I became an atheist because I started to doubt the things that used to convince of my religion's truth. This wasn't as much of a cold logical process as much as it was a slow creep of doubt that eventually became stronger than the belief. Now I'm unconvinced of my old beliefs.

[CirclesForever]

Speaking for myself, on my own behalf; I realised I was an atheist when, as a child, I learned that there was more than one religion and that religion was different in different countries. It made me realise that religion is a cultural phenomenon, and it was a short few steps from there before I was fully atheist.
That was when I was a child, and I've become more stable in my position the older I have gotten and the more about religion and the world I have learned.

[paulinemoira]

With this kind of question there has to be a distinct difference made between "Why does a group of people become less religious?" and "Why does a religious person choose to become an atheist later on in life?" Equating trends of a population with the choices of individuals just becomes messy.

[jonrendell]

I suffer from the mental illness of thinking that if I present people with strong arguments and data that they will change their opinions accordingly, but "You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place.” — Jonathan Swift

[Graysonn]

One thing about the study that said rationality isn't tied to athiesm, especially in the UK. In the UK religion is such a mild version that it doesn't have any sway over public life. So people don't need to be athiest. It's not an option they even need to think about. Whereas in the US where religion is such a force, people will be forced to make a choice and engage critical thinking.

[bobboulden]

Perhaps if the people who tried to bring me up baptist hadn't insisted on a completely literal interpretation of the bible I wouldn't have become an Atheist.

[justmoch]

here in Indonesia, people are more open to „agnostic“ as I am observing. although it’s mandatory to „label“ our religion, but many people in the social media are not shy anymore to declare that they are agnostic“ rather than „atheist“.

[germalganis]

I clearly recall my catechism teacher telling me that dinosaurs never existed, and a 7 year old me thinking "are you kidding me? we have bones they right there, in the museum, you can go and see them"... at that moment I realized they were lying to me.

[CatBarefield]

The idea of strong safety nets being a driver for atheism is so interesting. If you don’t have to cope with devastating injustices, you’re less likely to need a god. That sounds about right

[CountGremlin]

As someone that has a family that are super religious and the church is cult-ish, a HUGE reason I went down the athiest route was being in public school with kids that different religions and seeing how they rebelled. Once i became a Teenager, unironically metal music helped me question a lot of spirituality- especially Death's Spiritual Healing album- in which they criticize Televangelists and greedy people who use Jesus and religion as a means to fool and scam people. Which reminded me SO MUCH of what the church my family goes to was doing at the time. (They're like an MLM scam but with Jesus instead of business). For a time I was a cringe edgy athiest until a close friend of mine became a Buddhist and I saw how it genuinely helped him, which opened up my mind to "hey not all religious people are stupid or too lost in the sauce". I'm still atheist but very respectful to other people's spirituality and believes, the only thing I won't respect is the "pastors" and churches that scam uneducated/desperate people for money. And athiests that belittle or mock religious people, look it doesn't hurt to be kind 😂

[Sabrowsky]

I recall what killed my faith in catholicism.

I was in a cathechism meet where they handed us a little slip of folded up, flower shaper piece of paper and told us to put into water. Now, I knew this trick, it was paper that was sensitive to temperature and moisture, as soon as I'd put it into water, it'd unfold. When exactly that happened, the cathechists then told us that this was God giving life to the flower-shaped paper and making it bloom.

So, I'd guess my nonbelief would be that I realized the church was lying to me about something and wondered what more they were lying to me about. This has changed absolutely nothing about my life.