My changing view on atheists and atheism

It has been long since I have been contemplating a post on this topic. In the past year or so I have been thinking deeply about my religious obligations, my spirituality and the relevance that these hold for other people in their lives. One contentious issue that I had very strong opinions on was the issue of atheism.

I believed that atheists were just ignoramus idiots.

A little background on my personal journey through the quagmire of faith and GOD.

There was a time in my life when I decided that the best way by which I could avoid the Sunday mass was by declaring myself an atheist. I was hell bent on working towards this goal in my life. Somewhere in between my plan towards achieving this goal a thought struck me. Before I announce my atheism to the world let me search for GOD and when I DON'T find him after my search I can confidently make my transition to atheism without any religious nut telling me I have not searched for GOD. To cut long stories short, in my quest for GOD I somehow managed to rebuild my faith and I just could not come to the conclusion that GOD does not exist ... (and yes though I am not completely dogmatic, I do attend Sunday mass every week).

After this realization of my faith in the existence of GOD I decided that any person who claims to be an atheist should be able to substantiate his atheism by giving concrete evidence that he failed in his quest to find GOD, i.e, he actually went searching for GOD :) ....

What I would have wanted to ask an atheist is "Have you succeeded in finding reasons why GOD does not exist after having gone searching for him or is it so that you have succeeded in finding reasons for not finding GOD and therefore disproved his existence?"

My opinion has changed ... somewhat drastically of late (actually the past two days ...). It all boils down to faith. The common denominator between believers and atheists is faith. Believers have faith in the existence of GOD and atheists have faith in the non-existence of GOD, period.

It is very difficult to get a straightforward objective answer to matters related to faith, and that is because of the personal nature of this attribute of human beings. I am strong in my faith in the existence of GOD, and an atheist is a true atheist if and only if he is strong in his faith in the non-existence of GOD, after all faith as i have defined it for myself is my personal belief of the truth...

Sucker for mushy movies ?

Two weeks ago, I finally got to see Pretty Woman from the beginning till the end without any interruption. And i thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I totally and thouroughly enjoy these mushy romantic light hearted comedies more than any other genre of cinema.

I dont understand why is it so that i enjoy mushy cinema but i cant stand books that fall in this genre (the mushy light hearted romantic ones). When it comes to books, my preference leans towards mystery, edge of the seat action and roaring comedies, heavily mushy books are a complete turn off.

Does this indicate that my preferences are putting me in the category of people who are well balanced, or is it just so that i need to get more patient at reading books and get a nice hi fidelity home theatre system to watch my movies :)..... !!!!