Greetings all from the usa. I consider myself to be an atheist now. But I didn't always. The change to atheist came surprisingly quickly because of the circumstances I was in. Where do I start? The beginning of course. I grew up in a family where my parents were pretty loose about religion. They never made me go to church at all. They explained the idea of religion to me and I understood most of it. I never really thought about much as a child though.
Sure, I'd notice my friends talking about religion and church, but I never really understood what they were saying since I hadn't gone to church. When I was about 9 or 10, I was visitng my Grandma (who was extremely religious, and still is). Grandma insisted that I go to church with her. I had never really been before. I went and I was dropped off into a 'bible class'. It was in this class where the first change occured.
All the kids there had been 'programmed' it seemed to accept God and they could recite many different quotes from the bible. Everyone in that class tried to 'save me' it seemed. Whenever I visited my Grandma, I was forced to go to this boring class explaining things that made no sense at all until I became about 11 and visiting her, when I went to the sermon part of the church. I was in the bible class anyway, and the teacher was explaining that Jesus was God's child and that his mother was Mary. I always asked questions in that class. "Why did God name his child Jesus? Why not Mark? How come Jesus wasn't a girl? Why did God decided to kill so many people for such a strange reason (Noah and the ark)?". The teacher would give me the most generic answer possible: "Well, God can do whatever he wants, and he is always right.". I was a bit confused by this but was becoming very brainwashed very quickly (we lived pretty close to Grandma, and she saw me every other weekend).
But it was about 11 when I became interested in Science. I checked out every astronomy book in the library before 6th grade was over. I had a fairly good understanding of most scientific phenomenon described in the library books. When I started to read about evolution, I thought it made a lot of sense but still didn't think much of it. I lived in a very religious little town, and the kids there don't like anyone who doesn't share beliefs similar to their's (as I was going to find out sooner or later). When I became 12, I noticed more and more that kids were becoming more and more religious. At that point in time, I wasn't too religious though. After reading up on science so much, I considered myself to be different; I didn't like the idea of God. Too many different things made me think more and more he/she/it did not fit the omniscient description commonly "tagged" to it.
My parents were divorced when I was 2, so when I was 12 I started to think more and more about that as I had to choose who to live with (my parents were both arguing over who was a better parent, and forced me to decide which one I was going to live with). I thought of god, and why he hadn't stopped it. I was a fairly decent person. Then I thought about all the suffering you hear on the news, about how children die each day and people are murdered in front of others. I thought of the Haulocast, and how Hitler behaved. I came to the conclusion that Hitler and the Nazis were a product of 2000 years of religion and religous bias. I talked to my friends and they constantly reassured me that there was a god. By 13 I was thoroughly confused about religion.
My friends explained I had to have faith or I would not be allowed into heaven. Then I became angry. I started thinking (and telling them) that any person, regardless of whether they belived in God or not, should be let into whatever kind of heaven there is. But not because they belived in God, because they were good people. After finding many loopholes in the bible, I decided that there was no God. I decided everything I had learned about religion was for a reason though. One word: Control. Religion is the ultimate control tool. It makes the people fall in line, give a hell of a profit (tax free churchs and the collection box...hmmm....), and lets religious leaders be very powerful in dictating their opinion. I told my friends this and they became very angry, calling me a pagan and telling me that I was going to hell.
I was fed up with the religious crap everyone was telling me now, I knew the truth: science. I told one particular friend (now ex-friend) whose name was Damon, that if I wanted his white trash opinion on whether or not I was going to hell, I'd ask for it. I told the others that I wasn't sure if they just had shit-for-brains, or if they just had bad genetic material. Well, I made new friends who were much more open, and fellow fans of science.
I'm 14 now, and I'm glad to be an atheist. It explains more than the church did, and it's good to know how things work. How christianly of my old friends to try to 'save me' and tell me I was a stupid atheist. I almost converted one of my old friends, but he switched back into theist-fantasy-land, I mean, Christian perception.
I've decided now in the end, that whatever you belive, we are all working together here. We all strive for the common goal: to lead a good life. Although I think the world would be much better without religion, we spend far too much time arguing over it. Since I'm an atheist, I belive that this is the only life I get. And I'm not about to waste it arguing with simple close-minded christians who won't even accept reality.
Your religious views are not something that should be forced onto you, you should decide yourself what you belive. Not what others want you to belive. I'm 14, and I'm old enough to decide what religion (or lack of religion) I want to be. Well, thanks for listening. Feel free to email me back with any questions, comments, etc. But I'm telling all you born again people: I'm a bit fed up with you all, and you cannot 'save me'. I am 'unsaveable' as an atheist (or what you religious types would call me: A magnet for evil). Thanks for listening everyone. Walter