I was raised a Baptist, my parents never went to church but made sure I did. I was saved when I was 10, and I was all ready to rush out and dedicate my life to the LORD(heh). About four months ago, around my 16th birthday in Nov., I was poking around on Adrian Barnett's site, The Wasteland of Wonder's atheism section. There I was, sitting like a perfect Christian fool, Bible in my lap and a keyboard on the desk, pounding out a response declaring his arguments "unscriptural, and therefore, false.", quoting verses from all over. Then it hit me. "Why am I doing this? Why do I even believe this book? Because I've been told to? I'm full of crap." So I closed my emailer window, and continued to read on his site. I got onto a religion/atheism message board, and saw how foolish(and like my own) the arguments put forth by the Christians were. I was disgusted.

Within two weeks I had declared myself an atheist to all of my internet aquaintences, but I was still in the closet, hiding my atheism from everyone in the real world. Eventually, around the middle of Feburary, we were passing around Marilyn Manson's autobiography, laughing at the various sections. A Catholic kid in the group stated that Marilyn Manson should be killed. Everyone asked why. He informed us that he should die because of what he says about the Bible, and anyone who doesn't believe in God should be shot. I EXPLODED. I got right in his face, and I vaguely remember inviting him to start with me. He was totally shocked. Everyone was on my side. They weren't atheists themselves, but they were tolerant. Eventually, the janitor came over and prevented any actual violence, but the cat was out of the bag. I was an atheist. Within hours everyone knew, including my ex-Sunday School teacher. She is relentless in pestering me to come back to church. I have received the second law of thermodynamics argument, the unlikelyhood of evolution argument, and eventually, she even resorted to preaching veiled hellfire. "Don't make God prove to you he exists, you might not like how he does it." I laughed in her face. She was offended, I think.

I have never been happier than since I became an atheist, and I would like to thank you for that, Adrian. Thanks, man.

-Dennis Starker(Rashind)