Funny how your story mirrors my own except in the exact opposite direction.
for the first 18 or so years of my life I was very religious with a very strong faith. I went to church and prayed all the time.
Then stuff started to go wrong. My dad got sick and almost died, My mother gave away all their savings to the local church and left us broke. I will never understand that but she claims it made my dad well again.
I started to get into trouble with the law for stuff I hadn't done. I got arrested for a crime that was committed on a motorcycle that I did not own but had somehow become registered to me.
This kind of crap went on for several years,culminating in losing my job, then my house and car to repossession.
I remember asking myself what God had against me. What had I done to deserve all this?
Finally I made a conscious decision to fix everything and fight back. I signed up for college and worked my way through 5 grueling years with a spouse and two very young children, to come out with a science degree.
During this time I learned of the scientific method and all the other things that are needed to pursue a career in the sciences. Gradually God seemed more and more.. unnecessary to me.
I began to realize that the primary reason for all my problems had been that I had believed that by being true to God and doing everything right, somehow He would fix it all.
I had been completely delusional.
Releasing my hold on this imaginary friend was the turning point in my life. Relegating God to the same position held by Santa Claus and the Tooth fairy freed me to put my life back together.
No more would I rely on some fictional or mythological character to fix things for me. If something had to be done I would damn well do it myself.
God hadn't made bad stuff happen to me.
My own weakness had done that.
Using God as a crutch to lean on had been like using a support that simply wasn't there. I had fallen down without ever even knowing it.
These days I am doing pretty good without the need for any kind of god at all.
Kicking his imaginary ass to the curb was the best decision I ever made.
Like Ringo said, it goes both ways.
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