Well first of all, I think a little background is in order.

I was born into an Anglican family in Dublin, I was baptised, attended Sunday School, made my confirmation, went to church every Sunday, argued with atheists. I was a relatively active Christian.

Then when I was about 16 or 17, I started to drift away from the church, for a couple of reasons:

-Firstly, I realised that the bible was irreconcilable with some things I was sure were true. I knew there couldn't have been a global flood, I knew the earth couldn't be only 6000 years old, I knew that the theory of evolution was almost certainly true, but I had come to realise that the bible didn't fit with these things. For a while, four or five years, I toyed with the notion that only these parts of the bible were untrue, or metaphorical, but soon I was asking myself why should I believe any parts of the bible on faith, if I knew certain parts to be false. It was about this point, aged about 20, that I started to describe myself to people as an agnostic.

Since drifting away from the church, I have realised several other things which have made me pretty much a hard atheist.

-If God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and good, why is there suffering in the world? You can say what you want about the influence of the devil, or free choice, but if God was all-powerful and all-knowing, he would have known exactly what was going to happen when he created us, and was in a position to prevent it, so I don't think it is fair for him to punish us for something that is essentially his fault.

-Why are there so many different interpretations of the Bible? Surely God would have foreseen this, and written a little more clearly, instead of allowing all the bloodshed between different sects of christianity

-There are so many religions which all make claims of prophecy, and to be the One True Faith, so what are the odds of christianity being the right one?

-Huge parts of the bible are absolutely repulsive. Multiple genocides, intolerance of women, orders to kill disobedient children, etc. Even if I did find the book remotely credible, I wouldn't want to follow a religion based on such foundations.

So there you are, my reasons for being an atheist. Feel free to talk with me about any of them!