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If I only loved people who loved me back, I probably wouldn't have much love in my life. It's kind of like my faith. There are days I don't feel any real reason to believe in God. So many horrible things happen to good people every single day and children suffer terribly, children (!) who haven't been on this earth long enough to bring on any of their own troubles.

Then I see something incredibly small and (seemingly impossible) like a squirrel make it across the street fine and perfectly intact and I feel Him. I can't get mad at something I can't see and I can't get upset because the world is so cruel. Maybe we wouldn't have free will if we were constantly being protected or saved by a Higher Being.

Sometimes I try not to think about any of this because if I think too much, I feel like I chip away each day at faith. And like lots and lots of people, I feel like, sometimes, faith is all there is...

Faith isn't easy, of course, and it cannot be forced. I went through a long period in my life when I was angry at God, mistaking my anger with organized religion with Him and desperately trying to detach whenever possible.

The thing is, though, you either believe or you don't. Just like you can't make yourself love someone, you can't make yourself believe something you don't. That's one reason why Pascal's Wager always drove me crazy.

Another reason is this:
 
In fact, according to many of these progressive religionists, God has more respect for sincere atheists who fearlessly proclaim their non-belief than he does for insincere "believers" who pretend to have faith because it's easier and safer and they don't want to rock the boat. According to these progressives, honest atheism is actually the safer bet. The weaselly hypocrisy of Pascal's Wager is more likely to get up God's nose.

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Believing in God because there's something in it for you (besides peace of mind and comfort) is just as maddening as being a "good" person because you don't want to go to Hell. You should do something good because it's the right thing to do, not because there's a reward at the end.