I’m an atheist. So why can’t I shake God?

[GrandizerII]

Humans have the ability to imagine. Explains why people see faces in places and things where there is no face. Unfortunately, someone back in time imagined a god(s) and it stuck. Then, eventually, it became a bane to humanity.

As to why the author can't shake god I can only guess. Based on what she said in the article my guess is that she finds it comforting (though she admits irrational) on some level. If that gets her through her day(s) that's OK. For me, I'm not buying it.

Bully for you.

Still, I wonder how many atheists here privately share her experience of the presence of the God-who-does-not-exist in their daily lives.

More than will admit it publicly, I'm sure.

Well, according to one study, even atheists can be physiologically affected by statements daring God doing bad things to their loved ones (such as paralyzing one's mother). Link to abstract:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.10...013.771991

We examined whether atheists exhibit evidence of emotional arousal when they dare God to cause harm to themselves and their intimates. In Study 1, the participants (16 atheists, 13 religious individuals) read aloud 36 statements of three different types: God, offensive, and neutral. In Study 2 (N = 19 atheists), 10 new stimulus statements were included in which atheists wished for negative events to occur. The atheists did not think the God statements were as unpleasant as the religious participants did in their verbal reports. However, the skin conductance level showed that asking God to do awful things was equally stressful to atheists as it was to religious people and that atheists were more affected by God statements than by wish or offensive statements. The results imply that atheists' attitudes toward God are ambivalent in that their explicit beliefs conflict with their affective response.

Of course, the sample size seems a little questionable, but even so, this does not mean these atheists subconsciously believed in God, but it does hint that even when we know certain superstitious beliefs to be irrational, we often struggle to not be impacted by them (google Hitler's sweater study for another example).