I don't think all religion is bullsh*t. I have great respect for Buddhism, Taoism, Naturalistic Paganism, Pantheism, and other religions of that sort, but I was raised to be Christian (specifically Catholic), and that as well as the other Abrahamic religions are completely f*ked and illogical.
All the evidence pointed to it not being true (former christian too) plus I'd rather live a good ethical life, than live a christian one, in which they excuse and commit mass genocides and infanticides, and rape and slavery and so on and have the audacity to call it 'good'.
I was religious from childhood, and have always been interested in religions, mythology and science; I was a devout, practising Catholic; I read the Bible, both Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha, several times; and was taught about it in school.
After studying and thinking deeply about faith, I realised in mid-teenage that faith was based upon nothing but itself, that science explained nature satisfactorily without needing supernatural beings, and that religious beliefs were no different to those of ancient beliefs in gods and goddesses.
When I first had doubts about my faith I thought that maybe this was a test of it, which was an idea planted in my mind by those teaching us about our faith. So I made the effort to accept it even more so. But the doubts came again, and I wondered what would happen if we took faith out of the equation; the world and nature still made sense, so I saw no reason to get back into it. And my understanding is that there's no theoretical or mathematical need for a god or gods, and there's no valid evidence of it or them; so there's no reason to believe. At the time this was difficult intellectually and emotionally (I was a teenager, after all).
That was over 40 years ago, and my escape from faith has freed me to embrace what science has to offer, which I consider far more plausible than belief in the supernatural, and is the nearest we can get to the truth about how nature and the universe work. I've felt a sense of freedom ever since, and am happy and at peace with this. And I've found the humility to admit that I don't know everything, rather than masking this by invoking a deity.
I still have an interest in religions, mythology, folklore and related matters, and am fascinated that people still believe in things that to me are clearly just not true.
I gave up on believing in god, but I still have a spiritual side. The way I see It, we make our own choices and mistakes in life, but I don't believe someone is judging us from them. We just have to do the right thing and make the right choices.
The realization that it was all a lie made me wonder why I should let religion tie me down. So I gave up Christianity (at age 8) and became a free man, uninfluenced by the hateful and false teachings of Christianity.
I for one, didn't give up on religion, I just don't believe in god or creationism, that is all. I consider religion a part of culture and identity, and also still voluntary, many people are atheists themselves but still practice their faith with their family and loved ones, and respect others of faith as well.
I don't know if I count, I did at one time give up on it, but I saw and know too many good people that are religious and believe in god.
Originally I pushed away from religion because of all the hate and violence and terrible things that people did for it's sake.
Only know I don't think those things represent an entire people or practitioners of faith.
More and more I see religion being used as a method to control an agenda. It's always been a tool used by people to control the masses but lately it has become far more prominent a tool than I can remember in my lifetime. In the past the prominence of religious control always seems to go hand in hand with great religious abuses of power and I wonder if it is possible to have religion holding great power in a society and still have that power act in a responsible and ethical way. I don't think so.
I like to consider myself agnostic. I have yet to fully deny God's existence, yet i find it hard to believe that he allows or even condones some of the horrible thing that happen in life. For example, if the views of the Westboro Baptist Church are correct and God truly "hates fags," then I want nothing to do with that.