I never was a devout follower of any religion, because my parents were non-practising protestants. As such I was free to form my own beliefs, solely based on my life's experiences. That doesn't mean I was bound to become an atheist. With a father who was more like a vindictive god, and a mother who resembled Mary, I can say there were plenty influences that helped form my beliefs.
The strongest influence to my beliefs however were the bullies that made my life miserable at least in the early years. That was the reason why at age eight I decided to figure out how the world worked so I could prove there was no place for the bullies in my world. And as a result, they mostly disappeared...