Ernst Haeckel, a contemporary of Charles Darwin, wrote in his book The Riddle of the Universe something else that convinced me there was no God. If a thing doesn't follow the all-pervasive law of substance, then it's not real. I didn't realize at the time that twentieth-century physicists had rejected this thesis. I accepted the basic framework of this nineteenth-century writer's thinking and continued in my atheism. It wasn't long before I joined a little clique of atheists on campus.
Religion is childishness.
Our fellowship was nothing like that of Christians, because atheists have an entirely different way of thinking. They have a tremendous amount of pride and competitive spirit. Our idea was that if we climbed over enough people, we could get to the top and be the supreme being ourselves. One day an Inter-Varsity Christian guy walked by our little group. I asked naively.