Cherlylynne,
After encountering many atheists myself, it has become clear that there exist precious few reasons why they became atheists.
THE major reason for becoming Godless or agnostic is poor religious and history education.
Many atheists were taught some wacko version of Christianity as children and then went into a perpetual state of rebellion once they reached the age of reason (puberty).
Another factor is that the history of Western Civilization is not taught properly to undergrads and public school students.
Even back in the early 1970’s I was taught the history of Western Civilization minus the profound influence of the Catholic Church from the 5th century through to the Renaissance.
That’s like gutting a fish and expecting it to swim.
After studying Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in grad school I learned how to reason my way to faith.
The Christian faith is in fact quite reasonable.

Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle is given credit for first developing systematic thinking.
He was a student of Plato who was a student of Socrates.
As we know, the ancient Greeks were pagan.
Yet, through reason, they developed various proofs that God exists.
Further, modern scientific discoveries and methods have all but proven God’s existence too.
And atheists like Dawkins and Hawking are long past panic and into straight up denial.

I’m not sure the existence of God can be “proven” by reason although believing in God is a whole lot more reasonable than atheism. I think that faith, by it’s very nature, would not be faith if it can be 100% proven by reason and completely invulnerable to doubt. I have struggled with doubt many times over the course of my life but cannot forsake my faith because I have experienced too much to know that it is anything but true. I also guess there are probably as many reasons for a person becoming an atheist as there are atheists.
Blessings

Thanks so much for your kind reply and for representing the respectful portion of atheism. I apologize if I have in anyway been part of the Christian crowd that responds to unbelievers with any vitriol. I am glad your are looking for the truth and pray you will find it.
You can stand on your head and walk on your hands? Awesome. I can barely manage to walk upright on my own two feet sometimes without falling over. 🙂
Blessings

I recently read a thought provoking statement by another Christian. “Many atheists don’t believe in God because they don’t want Him to exist.”
This hits the proverbial nail on its hard, tiny head.

Actually, a great many atheists– myself included– were faithful believers before losing faith in the existence of the divine. For my part, I had nothing to gain and everything to lose by my disbelief. I was a devout Christian with an avid appreciation for apologetics whose family and friends were composed mainly of strong believers. When I lost my faith, I was very worried that it would destroy my relationships with my parents, my closest friends, and even (and especially) my wife. My atheism had nothing to do with a desire for God’s non-existence, and I am not unique among atheists, in that respect.

They assume they know enough about Christianity, its nature, foundations, and function, to make an accurate judgement as to its truth, viability and benefits.

I’ll admit, there are certainly a number of cranks out there who continue to spout nonsense– such as the “Jesus is just Mithras” crowd. However, quite a number of us actually do have a very good understanding of– and even a respect for– Christianity, its nature, foundations, and function. A number of atheists are former pastors, preachers, ministers, theologians, apologists, and New Testament scholars. Again, speaking for my own experience, I was (and remain) very keen on apologetics literature; I read New Testament Greek, and understand the textual history of the Bible; and I have a knowledge and appreciation of Christian philosophy and theology.

Do they ever ask themselves, “If there was no God, no need for faith, why would human beings invent it all? We have no need to stand on our heads and walk on our hands so we’ve never invented the practice.

Yes! We do ask this question! There are entire fields of philosophy and anthropology dedicated to researching this very question!
Incidentally, we actually have invented the practices of standing on our heads and walking on our hands. I actually do both fairly frequently, for exercise. My younger Jiu-Jitsu students get a real kick out of racing me, their army-crawls versus my handstand-walking.
Thank you, again, for writing this. I hope that I can be an example of those unfortunately far less vocal atheists among us who do not share the vitriol of other unbelievers. A great many of us– if not the majority– really are simply looking for truth and remain honestly unconvinced of the existence of the divine.