1 of 36

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 2

to happen to all the people who don't believe in Christianity just because they haven't heard of it? What about people with different religions? And what about dead babies?"

My mom told me that she wasn't sure about the babies, but everyone else goes to hell - they don't get to be with god, and they have to be unhappy for eternity. Mom wasn't specific about what sort of hell she believed in, but it didn't matter. I realized at that moment that none of it could be true, because there was no way it could be morally right: no wonderful, loving, all-powerful creative being would harm so many people who did not deserve it. I told my mom my belief was abandoned. Somehow, she kept hers.

Religion's inability to respect diversity was my main reason for becoming an atheist, and my knowledge that god is phenominally unlikely to exist has only diversified and strengthened since. After reading many books and watching many specials about theism, philosophy and the sciences, I've become more militant: not only do I think there's no god, but I've heard and can refute every argument to the contrary. I also think belief in god is often harmful.

I'm an atheist because there's no way anything like the god described in Western religion can be real. Usually, the descriptions of him aren't logically possible (the trinity is nonsense, an the problem of evil is unsolvable), and usually aren't physically possible.

What kind of all-knowing, brilliant god would force himself on a human woman, create a son which is really himself, and sacrifice himself to himself to forgive sins that he, being all-powerful, could have forgiven whenever he wanted anyway? The fact that such a question can be legitimately asked is why I'm a non-Christian.

I'm an atheist altogether because there's just no evidence that the other religions' god-tales are any more believable than the ones about Jesus. If god has any kind of role in human affairs, that role must be scrutinized - and under scrutiny, it doesn't hold up. It can't hold itself up without religious faith: the deliberate choice to abandon reason and believe not because you have any reason to think a thing is true, but because you and your peers wish it were.

Only now am I gaining real interest in the sciences, especially biology. In a latent, hidden way, I was taught, as a child, by my mom and her religion, to ignore how cool animals, dinosaurs, and paleontology are. "Goddiddit" means "There's nothing more to learn," and I think it put a damper on my interest in the complexity of reality. If I had known as a child that humanity doesn't have all the answers, I would have had a head start on trying to find them myself. By the time I got to high school, I was already behind, and just barely scraped by in science class by listing the few things I managed to memorize.

So, now I'm playing catch-up, gobbling up biology and evolutionary theory and philosophy with a new, fresh vigor. While it's not so great that I'm behind (I only really learned the difference between 'eukaryotic' and 'prokaryotic' cells a few weeks ago), the good news is that I'm having a great time - guilt-free!

Learn more about this author, Currie Jean.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2

Add your voice

Know something about Testimonies: Why I am an athiest?
We want to hear your view. Write now!