Atheists who have converted to theism?

[robvalue]

I can understand that for some people, having no inherent meaning or purpose could be a hard thing to come to terms with. It just happens it doesn't bother me at all, and doesn't seem to bother a lot of people.

The thing is though, I was never raised under the illusion that life has inherent purpose, or that life continues after death. So when I came to these conclusions myself, I hadn't "lost" anything. If you're taught, as fact, that life has and needs purpose, and that there is an afterlife, coming to terms with these not actually being the case could take some big mental adjustments which I guess are just too much for some people.

Of course, not everyone is even going to come to the conclusion that what they were taught is unsupported. I'm talking more of people who get close to the edge of questioning their "faith". To even get that far requires either never having properly believed it first time round, or else a big effort (and the capability) to objectively analyse the beliefs.

I'm very impressed with the people who shed their religion for moral reasons, before actually losing belief in it.