For me, all of that broke down when Rebecca came along. I have personally witnessed that before she came there was nothing, and after she came, there is a little person. I can see why people blame this on God. She's dopey and immature, but she's a real person. Theory has become reality, I have personally observed, no second hand testimony here, that I became a parent, my parent became a grandparent, and my grandparent became a great-grandparent. That one event was like an inductive proof. I am now aware, in a physical kind of way, of this immensely long chain of begat-ing, infinite for all I'm concerned. My life has been put into context. I will grow old and die, I will become my grandmother, I will go through the stages of everyone before me, and watch generations come after me. It is so weird.
Why now? I was there when my little sister was born, maybe I just wasn't paying attention. There are probably lots of different ways to reach this particular enlightenment, but I bet hitting it when you become a parent is pretty common. It also explains to me a little bit why some people never seem to accept that their children are true independent entities. They just never got it, maybe because they were unable to relinquish their spot as the child, unable to accept how many ways they really were just like their parents? Unable to accept their own humanity and death?