Wow! Recent.
I must tell you I too am an atheist. I was also raised in a Protestant household but experienced my first doubts about age ten. I was an atheist by age sixteen. I find that there are quite a variety of experiences that cause people to lose their belief in God. Many Christians think we must have suffered abusive upbringings or had other traumatic experiences that led to the atheism, but I haven't yet come across any atheist whose claimed that type of experience.
I daresay, if it is even given to you to understand, that for this kind of mind, it will require great traumatic experiences to bring to life in your mind that which is necessary to be able to receive the truth. Soil must be toiled, and ripped apart, and weeded, and refreshed with harsh smelling compost, and reworked, and smoothed out, and made even, and heated, and watered, before any seed that is planted within it will have the ability to flourish. IN the same way must the flesh, the center of which is the brain, must be toiled, and ripped apart, and weeded, and garbage must be dumped upon it, and it must be reworked, and smoothed out, and made even, and heated, and watered, before anything good will be allowed to grow in the mind which has waxed into a desert - for it is full of dry sand by day, and the winds are great, and the light is bright and hot; but at night, it is extremely cold, and it is dark, and though there is great beauty in the sky, that beauty can never be reached with the hand that yearns for the beauty of a bed, a meal, and a cup of cold water.
An atheist will count the stars and never discount their beauty. A Christian will count the people and will never discount their beauty. And yet the proof is in the stars. When the star goes supernova, it gives birth to the same star, but gives it more power and it is much greater to behold. The same is for people. When the atheist dies to himself and becomes Christian, there is a supernova, and though the star decreases in size of humility, it increases in great power and the light from the transition is great and it fills the sky. Rigel cannot compete with the conversion of a human to a quickening spirit by the power of God.
An atheist will discover the laws of physics. A Christian will break them.
An atheist will discover new diseases. A Christian will cure them.
An atheist will measure the size of the universe. A Christian will travel it.
An atheist will say, "This cannot be done." A Christian will do it.
An atheist will forgive a dog before a human. A Christian will forgive all.
An atheist will set sail in the depths of the imagination. A Christian will catalyze the imagination.
An atheist will think it is by his own devices he survives. A Christian will survive effortlessly to the jealousy and anger of all.
An atheist will use logic, but the end of his logic is ineffective, because he followed the rules. A Christian will use logic to reveal mysteries and to expand the boundaries of thought. For this the atheists will take credit.
An atheist sees a Christian as another wandering puppy. The Christian sees the atheist as proof of God.
An atheist is more willing to believe in the pagan gods of the power of the elements. A Christian is given power over the elements. The atheists will bow.
An atheist is like a great dam. And it is heavily fortified, and no water that comes up to it may get out. And the river of knowledge and wisdom is dammed and is not allowed to pass through that one. A Christian is like a great dam whereupon water is allowed to pass through it. And the water is routed through the turbines that energy may be extracted. And the energy is extracted and routed to wherever the workers of the dam see fit. And the knowledge and the wisdom is converted to power so that many may live.
An atheist is like a campfire, so that in the morning there is evidence that there was a small burning. A Christian is a wildfire and no one can put it out, and it consumes the whole forest, and the memory of that fire is forever recorded in the hearts and minds of all who witnessed it.
An atheist is like a vegetable plant. For it is planted and grows in its season and it produces some fine vegetables every day for a little season, and then the weather comes and destroys it and it is nothing thereafter. A Christian is a fruit tree, who in the first year of his life he may not survive any season, but if he survives, he quickly grows and becomes strong, and twists and turns and his branches grow out slowly and in the fifth year of his life he may begin to produce fruit. And the weather will not destroy that tree.
An atheist is not reached by logic, for in that they fail because they consider that their strength. For they have said God does not exist out of the foolishness of their own hearts. Where is the logic? Knowing that God cannot be seen, they outright discount that which they cannot see. They do this thinking that logically if they cannot see, then they cannot be seen. You will not reach an atheist with worldly intelligence or logic, for it is their weakness, not their strength.
If you will reach an atheist, you will only do it through the heart, which has become a cold grey stone. One needs to smite the stone with a staff if God will allow the waters to pour forth from it. And then Israel will be able to drink from the fountain which came from the unsure place.
