christian looking to understand athiests

[Mister Agenda]

hello,  i am a born again christian who is looking to understand and discuss your reasons for being an athiest. i am NOT here to argue or change your mind.

Welcome to the forum. Your interest in finding out what we think instead of telling us is refreshing. If you keep that attitude, you will be fine here.

When I was a devout Pentecostal, I read the KJV cover-to-cover. Then I read a modern English version to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding what I had read. That experience did not make me an atheist, but it did cure me of being a Christian. One issue that kept coming up as I read was that God seemed to often make moral choices that were nonsensical or inferior to those a decent human being would make. I still believed there was a God, but no longer believed that the authors of the Bible were in communication with that being.

I still had a lot of bizarre beliefs (pretty much everything: Big Foot, Nessie, ghosts, ESP, ancient astronauts, etc.) having little idea of critical thinking or rational skepticism; but gradually, after some experiences actually investingating some weird things, I began to realize that one should not believe things without sufficient evidence to support them. I stopped believing in UFO abductions, cursed jewelry, and possession; at least until such time as they were supported by enough evidence to make belief in them reasonable. I must have started applying the same standard to God, because one day I realized I no longer believed in God at all.