From PZ's Place, Joseph Bloch, USA, On Why I Am An Atheist

While I have always deep down been skeptical of the reality of gods and spirits, I spent much of the last twenty years of my life as a self-described pagan of one sort or another. Every so often, my own internal sense of self-deception would go off, and I would renounce the frippery of gods and magic and so forth, only to come back again. Why? The strongest thing religion– whether it be monotheistic or polytheistic– has going for it is a built-in social support mechanism. It makes life incredibly easy in the sense that one doesn’t need to go out and find emotional, social, or other forms of support. It’s there, with plenty of people who will accept you and praise you and call you “brother” for precisely no other reason than because you happen to be on the same arbitrary “belief team” they are. It is incredibly difficult to consciously remove oneself from that sort of supportive system.

I am an atheist because I have finally realized that wanting to believe something is not enough. I need to embrace that which I really do believe and make do with the consequences of that belief.
Joseph Bloch
United States

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/01/28/why-i-am-an-atheist-joseph-bloch/

Summary: Always skeptical and self described pagan for 20 years, but liked the religious social support system; now apparently has rejected religion and is accepting the consequences of what he really does believe (Atheism).