"Most people are religious because their parents are. While there are a few true converts in each religion, the vast majority root for the same teams as their parents and culture.
The internet is breaking down that tribalism. The more viewpoints you see, the more trivial a primitive tribalist viewpoint appears. People become atheists after being religious usually because they realize it's all a bunch of crap designed to keep people believing.
I am the son of a pastor in a highly religious family full of pastors. I attended Christian college and was a Christian til I was almost 30. One day, I just realized that I couldn't believe in God because evidence of him was no more credible than all the other things I didn't believe in (alien abduction, astrology, Islam, etc.)"
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt= AjfEVT8CbKCnFylYE_K_7f3ty6IX;_ ylv=3?qid= 20130124035543AAmhnP6
It reminds me of similar accounts I read of how those who grew up in religious families or backgrounds came to realise that most of the teachings in institutional churches are based on fear and superstition and do not portray the fullness of the love of God or misrepresent God. Some of them end up not considering themselves christians anymore. So in this respect, being an atheist is mainly a response to rejecting the primitive notion of a mean, angry God. Like what the answerer said, the internet plays a part in breaking down the tribalism that is prevalent in religious circles - the more viewpoints we see regarding what the religion is all about (such as how the bible came to be, and how it can be interpreted in so many ways, and so on), the more trivial a primitive tribalist viewpoint appears.
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