Indeed, I never chose to become an atheist. I realized I could no longer force myself to believe things for which no objective evidence exists.

I realized that the concept of faith, as some sort of mystical mechanism for evaluating truth statements, is unworkable and must be meaningless. I mean, we don't have 26,000 Protestant denominations because faith is meaningful as a concept.

Every member of each of those 26,000 denominations will tell you quite firmly that they know they’re right about their divine beliefs because of their faith.

And nearly each of them will have a slightly different concept for what their beliefs are.

So, clearly and rationally speaking, faith cannot mean anything. It has to be superstitious nonsense.

I didn't choose to know that, I was faced with the reality of it. And that's just the way it is.