Atheism and OCD

[Coffee Jesus]

I guess a lot of this is that so many people believe in god, specifically YHWH.

Observation: a lot of people believe in God.
Explanation: God exists and communciates with us.

What other explanations could account for your observation?

Threat of Violence. Throughout history, people were forced to convert to Christianity with the threat of execution.

Correlation between religiosity and fertility. You can look this one up on NIH.gov.

Peer pressure.

The idea that Christianity is a source of morality or spiritual pleasure -- an idea that seems to bring certain unbelievers back to religion when they have children.

Bad Logic. You acknowledge that there are unpersuasive, illogical arguments for theism. If these arguments are still spread around by proselytizers, they must work at least occasionally. This shows that many people are persuaded by illogical arguments.

Psychological Problems. People having psychotic or manic episodes may think that God is talking to them. They really believe it too!

What's more is that all these explanations draw on what you already know. The hypothesis that they believe God exists because God talks to them is totally unnecessary. Furthermore, the sheer number of believers is of no consequence, unless you have actually calculated the expected impact of these known variables. Until you do that calculation, you cannot determine that the number of believers suggests that there are or aren't other unknown variables at play, such as God talking to people.

[Lek]

As one who also suffers from OCD I can identify with your dilemma. Your mind is constantly reviewing thoughts and it's hard to take a side because as long as there's a 1% chance that another option may be correct you can't let it go. You get full of anxiety because you place the weight of the world on every decision and evaluate it to death. I find it helps to look at things outside of yourself, as people with OCD tend to look inward all the time. Get interested in something practical, help others, and so on. If it starts to ruin the quality of your life, like me, you might need to take other measures. I started taking an anti-depressant (Paxil), which has helped a lot with the anxiety associated with OCD. I'm reading that experts are moving away from medications lately and more toward behavioral therapy. I think a mixture of the two is probably the best. Anyway, I wish you the best.

[Mr Greene]

First off kid, you don't have OCD, what you're describing doesn't fit the criteria so don't stress out about it, I work in a Mental Health Centre and have seen it up close and personal.
Second, Probably most of us have experienced the self doubt you described, so onto rumour control;
The physical evidence points strongly to the Jews having lied, specifically it points to a date around 450BCE.
Looking at our history books this is just after the Macedonian Conquest by Alexander the Great. If we then cross reference this point with the supposed biblical history we find 'The return from Babylon' at which point Isreal/Judea is taken over by an aggressive theocracy led by a bloke called 'Ezra', which gives us our prime suspect and motive.
There's a few videos on Youtube and other sources that you can watch for further info.

[Coffee Jesus]

I accidentally straw-manned a bit. He never said "because God communicates with us". That's just an example I've used before.