[A_perfect_lady]

I went through the motions, and tried to pretend I believed, but in the end I decided to quit lying to myself and accept the fact that I just didn't believe, and couldn't fool myself into doing so. With age came a growing lack of concern for what other people thought, so I quit worrying about it.

Same here. I came to the conclusion that using the God answer to explain away every puzzle and mystery was really just code for "I don't know."

I mean, why do ear mites and heartworms exist? Why does the moon always seem to show the same side to us? Why is so much of the Earth uninhabitable to humans? Religious people start with the assumption that God must have his reasons, and a lot of the time they let that be answer enough. But all it really means is "I don't know."

[GunRunner]

I think that is a great explanation. Instead of just saying “God did it”, I became comfortable with just saying “I don’t know.”