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It can be a theistic religion, reincarnation, etc.
Is there a way for an atheist to be a believer?
I know the process can be long. But I think it has to be this way.
Don't mean to sound harsh, but that is what I read.
Why not start by investigating some religions first, in order to find those whose values, dogmas, rules, etc., align with your own set of values? I guess that it can be easier to make the "switch" if there are something to adopt as own, or to feel identified.
As example, I could use myself: I'm also an atheist, but, some years ago I was very interested in the mythology of the Scandinavian region (as, you know, there are some "revival movement" around the Heathen/Odinist religion — I can be wrong in the "labels", sorry in advance for that) and somehow I got into a group of people who were trying to follow those "religious beliefs", more important, I felt identified with most of the ideas of those beliefs... So, in resume, thanks for that feeling, I almost start to believe on such divinities (albeit not in the same sense of the Abrahamic religions)... But I guess that my lack of conviction on believe in such things is so hardwired that eventually I left that path and continued my life as an atheist.
Atheist:
1) There is no god.
2) That means no supernatural woo, ghosts spirits, souls etc.
3) So everything you are comes from natural process happing in your brain.
4) This means that there is probably no fundamental reason the same processes couldn't be run in a computer. It might even be easy since it takes only a few watts in a few cubic inches and is duplicated billions of times by nature.
5) If it can be done it probably will be given time.
6) There can only be one "real" reality but an unlimited number of potential simulated realities.
7) So the overwhelming likelihood is that this reality is one of those simulations. A created thing. By something/someone greater.
Theist:
...
A puzzling request. I'd suggest doing some comparative religion research and finding something that resonates and start from there.
That said: you don't believe in something divine for a reason. You're basically asking for a way to brainwash yourself.
So. What makes you think life would be "easier and happier" if you believed in something "divine"? What is your definition of "divine", something super-natural?
For me (militant agnostic, atheist for all practical purposes) the sheer magnitude and mystery of the universe-as-we-know-it is more than enough to believe in. I haven't found it necessary to resort to a "God of the gaps". Instead I'm just fine not knowing everything and not needing a reason for things to be the way they are.
I'm also a Buddhist of the variety that doesn't believe in super-natural "beings", divine intervention, etc. I'm not unhappy because I believe we're "just" here for no readily-apparent reason other than that's just the way things worked out. Might I be wrong? Yup. Do I have any reason to believe I'm wrong? So far, no. It doesn't make me sad, it doesn't make me happy, it just is.
What makes me happy or sad is the human condition, how we treat each other, how we treat ourselves and our environs, etc. Believing in something "divine" would not change that. If anything it'd piss me off to believe there were interventionist god/ddess/s that don't bother to, or care enough to, prod us in the right direction. All evidence leads me to believe we're on our own regardless of the root cause of our existence, and I don't need any more than that.
How about the simulationist argument? Atheist: 1) There is no god. 2) That means no supernatural woo, ghosts spirits, souls etc. 3) So everything you are comes from natural process happing in your brain. 4) This means that there is probably no fundamental reason the same processes couldn't be run in a computer. It might even be easy since it takes only a few watts in a few cubic inches and is duplicated billions of t…
Occam's razor: it's not simpler to believe we're a simulation created by something else who's asking the same question.