Well the premise of the question was preposterous on the face of it, but it did in fact did imply an incarnate being that one could conversationally ask a question of, and so my response was written in that paradigm. It wasn't meant as some in-depth discussion on the nature of theism. It was, in fact, an attempt at humor of a sort.

I suspect you and I are on much the same page, plusfive, so I don't mean the following to sound contentious, but since you've got me started....

As far as I can tell, I have never had any serious belief in God or gods beyond the simplistic authority figure taught to children (which, by the way, is the god I addressed in my rant) I was raised Roman Catholic, or at least an attempt was made. Even as a child the concepts and just general atmosphere of the whole enterprise made me uneasy. My only relief was that, as a child, I felt I had a temporary waiver on professing any personal belief. Looming over me, though, was the day when I would be expected to profess my personal commitment to the idea. It was the same nameless dread I felt when the teacher asked for homework, and I didn't have it completed. Everyone else passed their papers forward, and I had none to add to the stack.

My epiphany, if you will, came one day in 6th grade before the daily mass at my Catholic middle school. I viewed it as an uncomfortable waste of time, and so on a lark, I asked that I not be required to go to mass every day, and if instead I could spend the time reading in the library. I posed this idea first to the lay librarian as "I wish I could..." She wholly supported the idea, but I suddenly I found myself standing in front of the Principal, a desiccated middle age nun devoid of any humor or warmth, and she was not pleased with my request.

"Oh shit" I thought, "I'm in the soup now!", but then a strange thing happened. She questioned me, pressured me, examined my motives and counseled me on the error of my ways. I believe she even called my parents, but as much as she clearly wanted to simply order me to attend mass, she didn't. I was allowed instead to spend the 45 minutes every morning in the school library, meager as it was, for the balance of my time at that school.

What had happened? Surely it was within the Principal's power to simply deny my request, but then it came to me: She didn't have the power to tell me what to believe. In fact, no one did. I could, by the authority vested in my own self simply decide to scrap the entire idea of religion as a part of my life, and no one could do a damn thing about it. An enormous sense of relief washed over me. All of the guilt and fear I had been taught no longer applied! I didn't have my homework, but this time I was excused to go play while the rest of the class had to stay and continue!

With religion went any vague concept I had formed of the nature of god. Without having to feint belief to fit in there wasn't even any questioning the existence of god. It was simply an uneasy concept I no longer had to deal with.

Word spread quickly among my peers that I had somehow, by some inconceivable magic, been excused from daily mass. I had always been a loner and on more than one occasion been disciplined for arguing with teachers, (and frankly I suspect, making them look bad), but being excused gave me a new status in the school. I was "the kid who didn't believe in God" I'm not sure I had even encountered the word "atheist" before, but now it was being applied to me. You have to understand that at that time and that place, 6th graders simply didn't question such things. Having decided such a thing was tantamount to announcing that I didn't believe in oxygen and henceforth would no longer be required to breath it.

To pick up the pace here a bit, for the remaining two and a half years of middle school, and a poorly thought out enrollment in a catholic high school (my parents faith was anemic, but their indoctrination was sound, at least in those days) I was The Atheist.

In Catholic high schools you encounter classes of a more philosophical nature where the Big Questions of life and faith are presented (and answers provided for you, of course). My reputation preceded me and I found myself being referred to in the third person in Religious Studies classes (even though I was present) I was the handy the counter example, the token heathen. After a time of this I became weary of having my "beliefs as an Atheist" presented to the class for me. "We, as Catholics believe thus and blah blah" the teacher would explain. "On the other hand, ATHEISTS like JEFF believe this clearly silly and unworkable thing here."

It ticked me off. I spoke up. I argued. I read the bible cover to cover as well as anything I could lay my hands on of the classical philosophical arguments over existence and got very, very good at disassembling theism and debating teachers, including clergy, to a standstill. Once it was learned that referring to me or atheism at all in class was to instantly derail your lesson plan, I was no longer in the third person. Now and then, some of the more progressive teachers would even solicit my views in class discussions. Oh, the power!

Being a young, mouthy shit disturber, it was a short hop from being An Atheist, to being Anti-theist and basically picking verbal fights over the dangers of religion and theism at any opportunity. This continued through most of college, but it gradually occurred to me that no one was convinced. I wasn't changing anyone's beliefs, my carefully laid out logical arguments weren't "converting" anyone to Atheism or really doing anything other than convincing people I was an asshole.

I stopped arguing. I still believe to this day that theism is fundamentally irrational and organized religions are one of the most intellectually destructive aspects of human nature, and if asked will present my views, but it stopped being my personal obsession to rid the world of theism.

Fast forward through 20 or so years of life, having a daughter (undeniable evidence of being an Adult regardless my subjective feelings on the matter), and cultivating an interest in cognitive psychology, information theory, and what makes humans tick. I had my second epiphany.

God exists. Yep, that was my epiphany. The evidence is everywhere and absolutely indisputable. A am technically still atheist (not AN atheist, mind you, atheist is an adjective that describes me, not a club I belong to.) but I think a better description would be post-atheist. This does not imply a return to faith, it means I have moved past the** pointless, unhelpful debate over existence.**

Only a fool would deny the existence of god. Any god, All gods. Only the naive or at the very least misguided would take up the debate over the existence of god. God exists, but in the same way as all other shared abstract concepts, like money or love. God is as real as any other experience a human can have. This changes the discussion from "Does God exist?" to "Why do gods exist?" Do they serve a vital function as a shortcut or loop termination in human cognition, are they an emergent property of the informational model building that gives rise to the subjective experience of "self"? Some combination thereof, or something I don't grasp yet? I'll keep you posted.

MMTL:DR (Much, MUCH too long: didn't read) Debating the existence of god is not only pointless, but is actually an intellectual dead-end because one of the essential properties of all gods is that they are non-disprovable. Being unknowable is part of their function. Existence is the wrong question. The correct question is WHY do gods exist? What purpose does theism serve? What cognitive mechanisms are responsible for spiritual concepts and subjective experiences?