Wow!  My answer is close to the same...not being science-minded, though, I feel as though a veil has been ripped from my eyes and I am able to see what needs to be done without the ties of religion holding me back.  No guilt!  Not that I was ever much of a theist, but old habits die hard and now I feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility for mankind in general.  I want to get involved because my involvement impacts the greater good.  That was not something I ever had before.  Too much of "why should i worry about it, it doesn't affect me?"  Well, now I know there is a damn good reason that I should worry about it and it does affect me.

I have to mirror Iruka's. I had never know what natural selection really was until after the deconversion. It's such a powerful idea, I'm disappointed I didn't learn it earlier in life.

I would say that after becoming a disbeliever i took a Sagan-like approach to looking at the world.  I grew up as a skeptic but found myself falling back on believing in fantasy.  Once i hit the age of 16 i dropped all of those beliefs in fantasy only to find that there was a gap i needed to fill.  Recently i've realized that i can fill this gap through science.  The amount we still don't know, and that one day can know completely boggles my mind.  It is something i love to ponder and write about.  So i 'd say becoming an atheist has opened my mind to discovering a sense of fantasy through hope in science.

Ancient Civilizations, grade 11.  Studying the origin of religions was what tipped me over the edge.

Sorry, BGH.  I answered your question correctly, and worded it poorly.  The knowledge that people behave exactly as they're "supposed" to has had the biggest impact on my life, and it also happened to be a tipping point, too.

People's behavior often puzzled me, because if the bible was true, then they did so many things that didn't make sense, it was hard for me to reconcile.  Once I realized that people's behaviors DO make sense, it changed the way I interacted, the way I predict others' behaviors, and the way I live my own life.  In a way, a completely natural approach to social science is kind of scary, because questions of violence, dishonesty, and other "evil" behaviors become more open-ended.  In other words, as many theists will gladly point out, without a "set morality" you do get a jumble of conflicting interests and grey areas.  The beauty of it, though, is that when you are honest about why people act the way they do, you can predict much more accurately, and you can empathise much easier.

It's akin to discovering that when you die, you will just not exist any more.  It's humbling, and also uplifting at the same time!  I am just an animal, just like everyone else, but evolution has created a system that helps most of us live together.  If we understand it, it becomes even easier to live and understand our fellow humans.

I think the thing that had the biggest impact on me was the historical side aspect. I'd always thought there was all of this proof for a theistic belief but once I began learning that there is virtually no evidence for any of it and that much of it was merely a big version of the "Telephone" game we played as kids I had felt relieved. Then I felt duped and angry at all of the people who ignored these facts and presented only what they wanted to make their case for the theistic belief. Now I feel invigorated and at the same time sad that others are trapped in that same go-nowhere mindset some of which are very negative situations.

In college I had taken a course on God, Ethics and Values by accident (I thought it was the right class and it wasn't but it ended up being the best thing I could have done) and I was taught that the idea of questioning things (that my parents and preacher had tried so hard to stiffle) was actually a POSTIVE thing. I had always wondered but it wasn't until that moment that I realized that in order to really get to the bottom of something you should always ask a question of the question you're asking. Just a simple "WHY" could answer so many things.  Of course, my biology and botony classes also helped tie up the lose ends.

I've currently been reading The God Hypothesis and that's helped answer questions surrounding space/time and I'd recommend it to anyone really looking a more in depth approach. Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus is a real deal breaker, too. (Ehrman says that while in college he was pretty much told not to really think about the discrepancies or to over analyze the errors. What he found really answered a lot of questions I had had about where the book even came from and I was shocked that there are more than, I believe, 300,000 discrepancies in the NT alone!) 

There really is no "one field" that I would say that I'm now fascinated by, they all fascinate me and it is so much better now that I know the facts. Moreover, I think that it's even more enlightening to be surrounded by so many intellectual individuals now. I think I've learned more in the last year from the people I've met here than before. And we all know you're never too old to learn something new. Especially when it's fact based. All fields have equal impact. 

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For me it was when I realized that there were humans living in Asia and the Americas during the time of all the bible stories.  I looked at it and thought, "what, were those people not worthy of being saved?" In the case of the people in the Americas, it would be over a thousand years before any word of jesus got to them?  It didnt make any sense.  I was about 12.

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The smartest thing I'll ever do is admit that I do not know everything.

If I understand it correctly I take the scientific view that even the most established of things are prone to complete change from an as-yet undiscovered factor or variable.

I rarely, if ever, claim to be 100% certain of something, just because I don't think I can do so honestly. I say this has greatly influenced how I think, though I can’t remember for sure if this idea came to me before or after I saw it as scientific, maybe it’s just common sense.

It's really clarified for me how easily people can cling to irrational beliefs, or believe things without proof, while at the same time, criticizing others who do have proof.  Also, how bullying they can be, often calling their actions loving and righteous.

I have never been deconverted, I was never subjected to religion, so I don't know if I have any business on this thread, but the one thing that really convinces me that the Bible/Christianity/Theism/Islam is nothing more than a fairy-tale is the main concept in the Bible of a God/Satan and Heaven/Hell, the idea that there is this omnipotent, malevolent Father of the Universe who was floating around in outer space, he just happened to be a man, and he waved his magic wand and created everything. Then he demanded that everyone worship him, tho he would never show his face or presence on earth, and made unreasonable, irrational, demands of them, and if they didn't abide they were going to Hell, where they live out eternity roasting in flames, to be reborn everyday just to be roasted again (or something to that effect).

As a "real" father of two wonderful children, if I were to follow God's example, should I demand that my two kids worship me, in addition to the Lard? I created them. But they were perfectly happy in their nonexistence, they didn't ask to be born, so why would it make any sense for anyone to worship this God? Does God send Ethiopian babies that died of starvation at 2 years old to hell because they didn't believe in him? What about retarded people who can't quite grasp conceptual documents like the Bible? What about my dogs and cat, are they going to hell with me, and likewise, in the future, if I convert, can I take them along to heaven with me? Is everyone really all that happy in heaven, does James Robinson get to take his yacht with him when he goes? What about the guy who married his Shetland Pony who I saw on TV, I think he was a Christian. Does he get to heaven?

Human behavior has never ceased to amaze me. Since my admitted atheism my interest in it has only gotten stronger. I love (this is weird.. I know..) to go to all sorts of different religious services because the psychology of it all is just riviting to me. The more I witness it, the more I realize that there is a process to sprituality, and it is very much like being sold a car, only generally you are being sold God. Seeing this fills me full of a mixture of revulsion and interest.

I am not scientifically minded. I suck at math and since I always figured that math and science were bosom buddies, then I should stay away from science, though it is something that I've also started to get very interested in. I pay attention to recent theories, I know the basics of evolution and various generic things of that nature. I forced myself through a physics class last semester, and while I didn't grasp about 98% of the math formulas he put on the board for us to understand, it was still just amazing to see how the world works, so I guess I have a blooming interest in science starting.  

Another recent passion of mine is political interest. Since I am becoming more outspoken about atheism, it seems that my interests in the political field are really starting to burn bright within me.  

 Another passion of mine that REALLY started strong when I was 15 and just falling away from the church was a very strong interest in cultures and religions (including religious history). I just couldn't (and still can't) read enough about any of that. The more I read, the more I learn, the more it just seems like it's the same bullshit just said different ways. 

Wow, that was a long answer... but an answer none the less.

--Sarah--

These are all great responses!

I love hear how someone learned something new by opening their eyes. 

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