Were you ever an atheist and changed your mind?

That hasn't happened to anyone I know - way more the other way lol. I'd be interested in hearing their story, too!

Nope, still atheist! If anything, seeing all the crazy religion stuff out there has further solidified my feelings.

You said story so here's my personal experience with why I chose to retire from Atheism, though it wasn't my first experience in life:

I was born into the Episcopal church with my mom's side of the family and got baptized when I was a kid. ( 80's )
During the grade school part of my childhood I went to a Mormon church with my LDS friend and participated in many of their gatherings till I was a junior in high school.
I started distancing from their beliefs after experiencing some sort of multi-dimensional shift in my awareness at girls camp.
( no drugs of any kind were involved , it was at a Mormon camp remember ) After taking meds for what was diagnosed as Depression ( I guess I left the multi-dimensional awareness out ) I started to feel more grounded again and my religion become the moto: "If I'm happy then so is God"( late 90's )

After that I went through a period where I felt there was no God.
I didn't feel a connection with this faith anymore. I just didn't resonate with the idea that there was someone who is worshiped looking out for us in the sky up in the heavens.
Instead of turning to God I turned to others for opinions, answers and acceptance.
What I forgot to do was turn to myself for them.
My meds were just making things worse now so I weaned myself off them before I graduated in 2000.

I went through a very existential experience after that in 2004.
It just happened out of the blue.
And this dissociation and out of body experience made me keep wondering about existence.
It was a very dark time because I felt like I was in a coma only I was still alive and kicking. (I don't blame my heart for disconnecting with me since I never connected with it.)

Till 2007 when I synchronistically started reading this book I found at my mom's house that I intended to just use for some words in it for a project I was working on because the title seemed like it would have a lot of the uplifting words I was looking for ( "Conversations With God" )
( I was making some word magnets for SO's mom and she was into uplifting stuff so I wanted that to be the theme )

I started to read the introduction and was intrigued with wanting to know what about the book made it expand so much after just a couple of people reading it and saying that the world needs to know about this?

After just the first page I was hooked. I ended up finishing the whole book in 2 days.
The perspective of existence in those words resonated with me so deeply that after just a couple of days the dark clouds lifted and I started feeling alive again.

I felt such an urge to share these insights with everyone I knew.
Because it was so much more than I ever knew about it.
This become my new belief and heart connection that I felt I reunited with.

For 3 whole years I felt free again.
Many of the existential obstacles were gone and I didn't really apply much of the insights that book had to my life then. I was just taking advantage of how I felt life again ( even though I still felt out of body it didn't bother me and I would joke with my friends that I can run as fast for as long as I went and not feel exhausted ) ( though I'm sure my body didn't like it when I did that )

Then after that the same experience I got my junior year at girls camp came back.
I've experienced it enough before that now to at least be familiar with it.
It's like such a low vibe and you don't feel there's any forward in time anymore.
That's when I really started expanding my awareness and started to live on the vibe the book I read was about.
And I seem to build on my awareness everyday with something new that I resonate with.
I have begun to explore things like Astrology, Numerology, Energy Healing and all the other "Woo Woo" stuff that makes my mind keep going Wow Wow Wow
I even attend different churches for expansion as well.
If a friend invites me to go I go.
It seems like there's a part of every religion that I resonate with and apply it to my life in an expansive way.

Though my experience is still challenging I feel I have reached a higher level of understanding why it's happening and I find more peace in acceptance and confirmation that there is a deeper and bigger reason to all I have been through than I do in all the years I have struggled with it.

So having not believed in God for a time I do now but I have chosen the path of lining with God being the Universe. And it's been a very interesting yet exciting experience since. And my heart is so happy that I have found trust in it again

I am a Christian and so far from perfect I shouldn't be allowed to make such a claim! HOWEVER, their is a well-renowned author and evangelist named Josh McDowell. Read his story. He set out to prove that Christ didn't exist and ended up a believer. His childhood was horrible - including abuse by a farm hand.

I find this topic very interesting. I was raised Roman Catholic. I am at best agnostic and always have been (even as a kid going to church). I think I'm too literal to have real faith. However, I envy people who do have faith. I want to believe so clearly in something bigger than us. I enjoy attending mass (but rarely go). I feel very comforted by the tradition and rituals.

I was agnostic but now I am a atheist .