Pretty much became atheist around 8 when I realized Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy and other imaginary friends, including the flying bearded man in the sky, weren't real.

Ultimately, I finally self identified as an atheist when I realized that absolutely nothing about religion or spirituality makes sense to me. It completely defies natural scientific laws. I also figured out early on that there was a part of me that was inclined to doubt. No matter how much I tried and wanted to believe, I literally couldn't. My life is much better now that I've come to terms with that, and stopped feeling guilty about not believing.

I became atheist when I realized why I felt uncomfortable my whole life going to church, going to religious education, having my questions always shot down with "take it in faith".  Because it never resonated with my heart, my intelligence. It made no sense. And in atheism I took comfort in having answers, and where we don't know the answers yet, we can say "we don't know yet".  It's humbling, honest, true, and human.

Honestly it sounds like you're already there. If you don't believe a deity created the universe you are an athiest. That doesn't mean anything at all in you life has to change. You can still go to midnight mass with your family. You don't even have to tell anyone. If you're interested in learning more about the philosophical arguments Dawkins is a good place to start (even though he's an ass)

For me being an atheist was a way to find a 'reason' for things when the answers from religious organizations didn't make sense to me.  Ive really never felt more at peace with the concept of death ( my dad is currently hospitalized for someylthing that will eventually kill him. Those questions are really important these days).   I've been finding a lot of comfort in atheist podcasts and friends and watching the new cosmos with Neil Degrase Tyson.  

I realized I was an atheist when I finally admitted to myself that talking to an imaginary friend that can supposedly listen to everyone in the world at the same time, didn't make any sense. 

There were a couple of things that got me on the road to atheism. First, and this is cliche, but education started me thinking about it (which is every evangelist's fear, and why they're so controlling about education in general). I studied music history in grad school and one of my classes was on medieval music, which revolves around the Catholic Church. Part of what I had to do was research the lives of some saints, and the stories were so patently ridiculous that I started questioning the very basis of the church's teachings.Secondly, I started to feel that faith was an aspect of egoism. Every religion is convinced that they're right--but they all can't be, and it makes more sense that all of them are wrong. Someone posted a meme to that end today! 

I'm not sure if you saw it, but if you scroll down to "At what point did you become atheist?" many stories have been shared there. ☺

The only reason most people are religious is because they were brought up that way. So then they hand this huge existential crisis when they become an adult and start to be educated (especially the young people of our generation) they begin to question what it all means and why people do it. Interesting fact to ponder: If you were born in another country you would have a totally different set of beliefs. (India, Iraq, Japan, Africa, America: all have different religions) The only reason you were brought up in the faith that you were is because it was your parent's, and their parent's etc. No one chose that, it was inherited.Also, atheists just believe in one less good than mono-theists. Thor? Athena? Venus? Neptune? Poseidon? Pluto? Hades? Zeus, Hera, and Aphrodite? Why doesn't anyone believe in them anymore?My philosophy is that theistic tendencies form in the absence of knowledge. Gain knowledge and reasoning and there's no need for faith, because now you have answers and information.

I wrote this on the other post