What's your story?

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Blackmon on July 18, 2014 at 2:58am

I grew up with a very religious father, and went to a Christian school from pre-k to 8th grade. In 8th grade I discovered youtubers such as Mrrepzion, theamazingatheist, and Jaclyn Glenn, who gave such good evidence for atheism. It was a long hard road for me.  I was a devout christian at the time, and all of my Christian schooling and indoctrination was all I thought I had. It scared me to leave it behind, but I couldn't believe it anymore. Once I saw how absurd it all is I couldn't go back! I'm so glad I did. I feel like I was living in a fog before, and now I can see. I can learn actual science now, (my Christian education taught "creationist science") and I don't judge people for not fitting in the small boxes Christianity wants everyone to be in. I feel that I'm a much nicer person because of my atheism, and I'm so glad I became one :) 

Permalink Reply by Nicole (Yuxa) on July 18, 2014 at 3:56am

I grew up in a semi-religious home; we went to a Baptist church every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening for potluck and bible study. I liked it, more because all my friends also went and I got to socialize with them and we sang and ate food and just had a good time. I also enjoyed religion and believed in God and whatnot. We stopped going to church after our pastor died, when I was about 12. I continued to be religious until high school (I went to public school all my life). I started dating a girl when I was 16 and subsequently began questioning my religious beliefs. My parents were completely fine with the relationship, they passed zero judgement and I was very lucky in the aspect. But, I was confused; my relationship with God didn't feel different, even though people told me what I was doing was a sin. I still felt accepted in his eyes. Afterall, I didn't feel like I was doing anything sinful or hurtful to anyone. I loved her (and still love, we're really close friends now) and we had just as mutually beneficial and healthy of a relationship as I had ever had with a guy, better actually. So, I kind of came to terms with the fact that my relationship with God was nobody's business but my own. But, I definitely didn't pray as much and started drifting away from religion. When I got to college I started studying sociology and religion and the more I analyzed and studied religions and their histories, especially Christianity, I began to see so much negativity. The way people use religion to deter social movements like, gay marriage or women's healthcare, is so the opposite of what I always thought Jesus stood for. The more I learned, the less I believed (plus I had always been a strong believer in evolution and am a follower of science, not dogma. Maybe that made me more spiritual than religious? IDK), until I finally decided organized religion, in general, was just not for me anymore. Instead of making me feel happy, it was really bringing me down and I just didn't believe anymore; I didn't feel the need to hold onto something that didn't fit into my life anymore. Some may say that I just had no faith or a shaky morals. But, I'm a good person with a conscious and I don't feel the need for religion in my life. I know good and bad, I don't need a book thousands of years old to tell me who I can love or how to dress or that I need to treat people with respect- I already know those things. Maybe I learned all of that from being religious the majority of my life and am just carrying those morals with me, regardless, I don't need religion to be a good person. 

Permalink Reply by Nick McFadden (Myopic Byclops) on July 18, 2014 at 9:08pm

My parents were very open-minded. Neither one had a set religion, though my mother believes there is some kind of force she can't explain. As I grew up, religious things were mentioned around me, usually in school. Rather than run to my parents and ask them, I did what I had been encouraged to do, I did my own research. s a kind, that meant reading in the library. When we got internet, I was able to look things up online, which wasn't very big back then. In middle school, I learned that I had no religion, and that these people were usually referred to as Atheists or Agnostics. Atheists had a bad reputation then as now, so I went with Agnostic. In High School, the internet was much better, and I learned the actual definitions of these words, realizing that I was an Atheist. After High School, I also realized that these definitions were not mutually exclusive, and that I was, actually, both.

Fairly straightforward, really. I was one of the lucky ones with an open-minded family who embraced my self-discovery the whole way. ^_^