I am one of those people of whom the clergy always says "has lost his faith."
When I was in junior high school, I was a very devout Catholic. I was an altar boy, and believed very strongly in God, and in the teachings of Jesus Christ. But I have come to disbelieve many of the sacred precepts of Christianity, simply because they are insulting.
I belive, instead, in the strength of the human spirit, in our own ability to rise above pettiness, greed, and selfishness, and to better ourselves and our surroundings.
I don't apreciate the fact that so many extraordinary things, both good and evil, are attributed to God, or to Satan. When someone performs an act of utter depravity, "The Devil made me do it" is not an acceptable excuse. The evil that mankind perpatrates on itself and it's world are products of our own minds and hearts.
Likewise, when someone rises to higher level of self-sacrifice, such as those who rush into burning buildings to save trapped people, or that fellow in Tienanmen Square who placed himself directly in the path of an oncoming column of tanks. I don't accept the explanation "He was illed with the Holy Spirit." To attribute such heroism and nobility of spirit to the Almighty is to slight man's own ability to rise above his baser instincts.
How difficult is it to believe that man is in control of his own fate? How difficult is it to believe that man is in control of his own actions? Whatever we do, be it good or evil, comes from our own minds, our own spirits, our own hearts, and to say that God is responsible is to deny that we are capable of making our own decisions. To say that there is an all-powerful spirit who motivates some actions is to remove all acountability from the people who perform those actions.
To quote one of my favorite science-fiction movies, "The future is not set. There is no fate but that which we make for ourselves."