Well I was once Christian, up until I was about 12 I was Atheist. I disapproved of my Dad converting to Christianity; as he was being baptised my brothers stood by his side but I sat in the pews scowling with crossed arms.
I never took religion seriously, once I figured out that Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fair were fake when I was about 7 I also put God into that category. I was constantly acting up in scripture lessons at school, always getting into trouble for questioning the teacher and being loud and obnoxious because I found it so dull.
But at about the age of 11 I started spending more time with my Dad and I was going through hell in late primary to early high school, so I guess I was weakened to the idea and Dad managed to convert me to be Christian; going to church, prayer and the whole shebang.
My Dad is a very smart man and because of this I think I was susceptible to the idea of converting to Christianity because I was young and he described God as this empowering, loving being who would always love me when I felt as though no one did. I scoffed at the idea that people couldn’t believe in God, heaven or hell and prayed every night and before every meal.
Once I started learning more and more about Christianity and religion (I went to church and was at a Catholic school) I also started to question religion. I was really getting into science at the same time, and it was more appealing and made more sense as I like the whole, reason and evidence idea.
After a while I really didn’t feel like I was Christian anymore but I kept going to church with Dad but stayed on the BBQ’s instead of the service as I was starting to realise how crazy everyone acted in there.
Not until I became mates with my friend Greg who was going through an almost identical transition as I was did I announce I was Atheist.
I’m Atheist because I know that religion can suck people in at weak times and prey on the people who are in need of acceptance and love, which God is said to give.
It’s really just the placebo effect, when you pray for something to happen and it happens it’s more because you had the belief that someone believed in you and you had the confidence to achieve your goal, thus is happened.
I also know how easy it is to say that God did it, or that it’s just they way it is because of God, no questions.
Religion was around in the Middle Ages etc because science was so oppressed and the technology to find information about the world around us was just not there. So it was much easier to say some higher being did it, and what uneducated society would question a powerful government’s obsession with it’s religion, eventually it would catch on to culture.
We have science now and it is slowly unravelling the real answers with hard evidence and such, and it is just proving religion to be more and more outdated.
Another reason why I am so Atheist is because I hate how people can just turn to religion because they can only find acceptance and forgiveness there. Like my Dad who is only Christian because of things he did to my Mum when they were together, who abandoned our family for another woman and after a few years of his sons not forgiving him and not wanting him in their life even though he had to spend weekends with us, he needed God to forgive him because no one else would. He is only Christian because of this and it has brain washed him, he is a geologist for fuck’s sake, he should know better, but his mistakes have enslaved him to God’s service and he is wasting his life.
Another reason why I am against religion and that really enforces my Atheism is because I hate how people devote their whole lives to religion. This life we have, this world we have is pretty amazing, and to be a living organism in this world at this time, and to just so happen to be human I think it is a pretty amazing opportunity, for exploration of self and to experience all that is before us. To have the belief that is just a tiny test and this life is nothing compared to what is coming after death, and to just ignore every impulse and luxury in life because it will get you into Heaven is just fucked up, such a waste of potential. A waste of a golden opportunity.
Atheism has driven me to loathe religion to exploit its stupidity and to spread the ideology of reason and freedom from omnipotent oppression.