Bill, and others too, good thoughts there. And lots of 'em too! ;-) Here's some more of what is happening for me...

I see good people all around me with a strange need for certainty. It's not just a desire for that commodity. They even find that it by making bargains with themselves to make it happen. They find the rule book---their Rules Ob De Road---to paraphrase the song as it was originally in Sarah Pratt McLean Greene's poem called "De Massa Ob De Sheepfol'" I'm practically surrounded by them folks and their found certainty. Truly, they are very good people---. As long as I don't have to continually argue with them. If I had a business and had to hire a bunch of people, I would hire THEM---and I would know that not even a paperclip would ever be stolen from me. In this world, in these times, that is really saying something.

So, for me, it's just simpler than it seems to be for you. I don't need to find the complex road of it, although I like your arguments with yourself, Bill, quite a lot--after I read through them.   I think I agree on most points. ------- But, again, one of the books I admire most is Alan Watts' The Wisdom Of Insecurity. I am possibly more depressed than the "certain" ones---although I see many who need and get real help from good professionals. I think I'm more realistic than those who find certainty by choosing to believe what is really unbelievable ;-) to me---because it's just so fantastic to me--as in fantasy laden

That is a large part of how and why it's a fairly simple matter for me to say I'm an atheist. Things just really do look that way to me when I'm being honest with myself about what I have seen all around me.

Art