Ok I admit it

[xpastor]

I began from atheist roots. I questioned hard and discovered an overwhelming amount of evidence against my lack of belief. I could not the continue to disbelieve, the cognitive dissonance was too great.

Your story sounds just like mine in reverse. I came from a strong Christian belief. I was a pastor in a conservative Christian denomination. I began to see an overwhelming amount of evidence against my beliefs. I lived with terrible cognitive dissonance for some years, and then I got out, first out of the ministry, then out of the church, and finally out of theistic belief altogether.

I am not the only one. I recently joined a support group for present and former clergy who have abandoned all supernatural belief. There are currently about 550 of us in the group, and I am sure there are many more who have not joined.

You said above:

I don't know that Australia exists. I could prove it physically, but I haven't. I trust information from various sources that it does. That is enough for me to believe. All of us make this leap on information received.

I presume you are implying that your belief in God is based on trust in information from various sources. What would those sources be?

If your sources are the bible or the testimony of religious people, I think you are on very shaky ground indeed.