"Finally church politics in the Episcopal Church, which I joined in 2001, became too much for me to handle early in 2004. I began studying Christian apologetics more intensely, debating doctrine and looking to sources outside the church. My Christian peers' response to my questions was for me to read more books by Christian authors. As I looked at the hypocrisy and backstabbing that was going on in the church, I stopped going to church after 2 1/2 years of near perfect attendance..."
"As I began reading books in support of atheism and secularism, I figured that if my faith could withstand my findings, my faith would be stronger than ever, if it could not, it was not worth having. By April, I was a deist, by May I was agnostic. By June I could comfortably say that I'm atheist."
"I have found a more real meaning in my life, one that does not require submitting to an all-knowing but unknowable, all-seeing but invisible, and all-powerful but absent deity." ( A quotation from: exchristian.org / Why I Joined / I finally quit the fight and started living )