Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?

[Mister Agenda]

Before I begin, I ask that you please avoid being hostile or anything. I'm a Roman Catholic, but I feel like many people of faith immediately jump to degrading atheists as people, rather than trying to understand their mindset. I'm heavily confused right now, and am asking both Catholic and atheist sites for their mindsets. Obviously, Catholics are going to defend Catholicism, while atheists are going to defend atheism. I ask that you please be civil about it, as this could be life-changing for me.

Welcome, Balaco. I hope you like this forum and make many interesting contributions. I appreciate you being willing to try to understand our mindset rather than presuming you already understand it. For starters, I don't think many of us really care whether you become an atheist or not, we have these talks because they're interesting, not because we're seriously interested in deconverting you. If we were, we would go to a non-atheist forum to try to persuade the non-heathens.

I've been questioning how to improve in my Roman Catholic faith lately...but this morning I came to the realization that I never really questioned my faith itself. I was lightly raised Catholic and recently took it upon myself to grow closer to God. Now, for probably the first time in my life, I feel like I'm genuinely considering atheism as a possibility.

From what I understand, atheists do not accept the possibility of a supernatural being, and restrict themselves to our "natural" human thinking.

I accept the possibility of a supernatural being. I just don't think one is very likely.

Previously I thought that atheists are simply conditioned by society to the point where they are unable to "rationally" believe in a supernatural being...God doesn't allow us universally undeniable proof of his existence as a test of faith.

In the USA, society tries to condition us to the Christian point of view, for the most part. The majority of us were raised to be Christians.

Now, though, I feel like it's impossible to tell whether that mindset is correct, or whether atheists are correct in their focusing on our natural human mindsets. I do feel like I've felt something while praying throughout the past.

I did too. I eventually came to realize that what I felt was originating in my own head.

The other night, for example, I was planning on praying for about fifteen minutes, but felt oddly calm and ended up taking about an hour. Now I feel like that could have just been because I was comfortable, and my mind was "making things up" as I was more convinced in my faith.

That could be it.

Atheists, why do you reject the idea of God, and why should I? I know that your answers will include "there's no evidence" and all that, but please try to explain.

Most of us don't actually reject the idea of God. God certainly exists as an idea. And most of us don't reject the possibility that God is real either, though the estimate of the probability depends on which version of God you're proposing. Atheists who are utterly certain that no possible version of God could really exist are called 'strong atheists' or 'gnostic atheists' around here. Those who just aren't convinced by the reasons believers have given are 'weak' or 'agnostic' atheists. I'm a 'person without God or gods', not a 'person convinced there is no God (or gods). As for why should you (be an atheist), it's not a should or shouldn't. Either you are convinced God is real or you are not. You should be a critical thinker and hold reasonable standards for what you consider acceptable evidence, and see where that takes you if you apply it consistently.