Loved the video. Here my story. I was brought up normal. My parents went to church etc. I became an altar boy and was very interested in catholic faith and even started to study theology to become a teacher for religion. Before I was already wondering, how there are so many different religions and how they all claimed to be true.
In University my favorite subject was the 'old testament'. Here the professor explained how some personal experiences of humans like the experience of an unexplainable natural phenomenon or a sudden healing from illness etc. were seen as something great and extraordinary. They were told to each other in tribal meetings and so all this experiences were shared and formed a common picture of a personal God. Also questions that occurred after a death were collected to the wish of later reunification. I was fascinated by that professor. He wanted to break up the old picture of our faith and rebuild it in a scientific and modern way. The breaking did work, but when he tried to rebuild the picture, he did not get it quite together for me. So I am quite greatfull to him, being my epiphany to atheism.
I stopped theology after this first year, changed my subjects to psychology, philosophy and sociology and became a social worker instead. I am very interested in post modern philosophy, psycho analysis, constructivism and system theory.
I think the most fascinating book I've read on the anthropology and the psychology of religion is Pascal Boyer's "Religion Explained" - that's one of those books that I suspect most theists (or at least those who understood it) would find somewhat unsettling.
Did you ever experience the moment that is so eloquently expressed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyjNXdEGjO4
This really resonated with me and I can vividly remember the time when I had that epiphany, and it was exactly as described in the video linked above.
For me, it happened sometime in my late adolecent - early adult years, after a long infatuation with the supernatural, and religious claims, I happened to pick up a book called "complexity: the emerging science at the edge of chaos and order". The title was exiting enough to lure me in, and what was contained within was a lively description of a process of science, and the people involved in it, in exploring something fundamental to existence. It conveyed the exitement and wonder of real, rigorous science, and it simply lit my mind on fire. All the supernatural stories and testimonies that had impressed me before, looked crude, sloppy and childish in comparison.
I didn't abandon the belief in the supernatural quite at that time yet, but that spark did kick of the process, and once it got started, it revolutionized my world view within months; exited by this book, and craving more, I looked into the "popular science" section of the bookstore, and picked up the first book that looked intriguing to me - "The Selfish Gene" by Dawkins. Half way through that book I had my epiphany, the moment described in the linked video.
How about you, have you had your epiphany... yet?