I was scared by Hell, I did not at first question the existence of Our Father, but no fear no terror could prevent my feeling that his All Seeing Eye was that of an Old Sneak and that the Atonement for which I had to be so grateful was either an imposture, a trick of sham self-immolation, or a crazy nightmare.
"[6] In his autobiography he writes that at the age of "eleven or twelve" "the light broke through to me and I knew this God was a lie.
[7] Under the stress of World War I Wells went through an extended period of what he called in his autobiography "deistic phrasing," without, however, making "any concessions to doctrinal Christianity.
"[8] But "[a]fter The Undying Fire, God as a character disappears from my work, except for a brief undignified appearance, a regrettable appearance, dressed in moonshine and armed with Cupid's bow and arrows in The Secret Places of the Heart (1922).
My phraseology went back unobtrusively to the sturdy atheism of my youthful days.