@MD: The whole church thing was pretty much forced, but the Elders that did the sermons were, by and large, fairly nice folks. Don't get me wrong, I didn't leave because of the people, they were some of the nicest, most charitable folks I've ever come across. Hell, when we had our car stolen and subsequently destroyed beyond repair, one of the members gave us their 2nd car to use until we could get a new one, and several of the members brought us groceries so we could save up more money.
The thing that led me away from religion wasn't the people, it was the religion itself. More specifically, the Bible. I read it a lot as a kid, and the more I read, and the older I got, the less it made sense to me. I'm not talking simple inconsistencies, but things that Yahweh did that were downright repugnant, reprehensible, and utterly immoral beyond redemption. I didn't want to be associated with a god like that, I didn't want to worship a god that ignored me, ignored my pleas for help. I realized that I couldn't rely on him, that if I wanted something done, I had to do it myself, because no divine intervention was coming. Not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't, because he's not there, he's not listening, and he can't care, because he doesn't exist.
In short, people didn't kill religion for me, religion did.