I went through the motions, and tried to pretend I believed, but in the end I decided to quit lying to myself and accept the fact that I just didn't believe, and couldn't fool myself into doing so. With age came a growing lack lack of concern for what other people thought, so I quit worrying about it.
You and millions of others. I don’t judge, and I think you overestimate the concern that believers have. Most Christians are, sadly, fatalists. They assume your path is laid out before and that your belief or non-belief has already been decided. Now, this is wrong, of course, but it’s just their knee-jerk assumption about God’s plan. In sober moments they admit that this is wrong, but like most 21st century humans they don’t have many moments of reflection. I only council non-believers that many truly agnostic people are smart enough to realize that prayer can only help, and a nose in the Bible is edifying regardless of belief. Do these as an atheist and consider just how impressed the Flying Spaghetti Monster will be...?
Same here. I came to the conclusion that using the God answer to explain away every puzzle and mystery was really just code for "I don't know."
I mean, why do ear mites and heartworms exist? Why does the moon always seem to show the same side to us? Why is so much of the Earth uninhabitable to humans? Religious people start with the assumption that God must have his reasons, and a lot of the time they let that be answer enough. But all it really means is "I don't know."