Have you ever gone back?

[Bad Writer]

Once a person realizes that the gaps in which "god" resides are simply getting smaller and smaller as we learn more about the universe, a return to religion seems an improbable (and, for some, impossible) journey to make. Why try to believe in something that you have no reason to believe in anymore?

A couple years before I made the realization that I was an atheist (but well after I left the Mormon Church) I decided I needed to go and see once and for all if my old faith really was a lost cause (spoiler alert: it was!). On my first visit back, I was greeted with smiles and warm welcomes (no one knew me, as I was living in a different state when last I had attended). The designated speakers were spouting off the same old boring rhetoric that got all the members teary-eyed and spiritual, and I had to suppress my gag reflex.

Then the fun began. As we finished up the first hour of the meeting, we separated into classrooms so as to have a more intimate learning session among smaller groups. The topic was on the Holy Ghost, and I did not keep quiet. The teacher went on for a bit about the different properties and attributes of this mystical being, and I challenged him with questions about him/it. The questions went unanswered (surprise, surprise), but it also left the room very silent in regards to what had been asked. Nobody could give me a straight answer, as they had never before considered what I had brought to the table.

I never went back, but I left feeling pretty vindicated in my decision to leave in the first place. Have any of you ever done the same or similar?