What brought that on? And how did the Rabbi convince himself to stay?

I don’t think this is a topic for discussion here. When I write my biography, I’ll consider spelling everything out.

Kudos to the Rabbi for the honesty in the answer. In my opinion, someone who thinks about, or considers, going off the religious path has two possibilities that either cause it or come out of it:

1. He can only become stronger in faith, because he manages to understand things that tried to undermine his faith, and now he knows how to answer them.

2. He is honest with himself and always searching for the truth, and there’s nothing wrong with that—doing some basic soul-searching every so often in order to decide for himself which side to be on and why.