Atheists & Agnostics

For those who have been "actively" atheist at some point, what do you think that involvement offered you?

From my (quite admittedly limited) experience, this type of participation in atheist discourse seemed to be most important for people who were once believers in the Christian god, who then wrenched themselves away from that belief. I'm guessing the immersion in discussions about the irrationality of religion/belief in god helped define this new direction for them.

For myself, I've never felt any need to engage in these arguments. I've always been an atheist. As a child, I listened to the stories about various gods (Christian and otherwise) and found them vaguely interesting, but didn't actually believe any of them. I don't feel urge to convince myself or others that my lack of belief can be justified. I just don't believe.