In 1966 in a small mining town in Wales 116 children were crushed or suffocated to death when a mountain of coal slag shifted and smashed into their school. I thought, Ïf god is omnipotent, why did he allow this to happen? Why didn't he delay the shift for a few hours until after school was over?
I didn't become an atheist on that day but I decided that if there is a god, it is useless. It cares nothing for us. It is a waste of time praying to such an unworthy deity. Some years later I took the natural step of rejecting god and gods altogether. I became an atheist and have remained an atheist ever since.