Why I am an Atheist!

Kia Ora!!!

Why am I an atheist?

I was raised in New Zealand and although we are the home of Mr Ray “banana man” comfort. We are a fairly secular country.

My first memory of religion was a Friday morning story telling time at school (I was approximately 7). We were being read bible stories and being asked questions about god. Now I do seem to vaguely remember that the person doing the reading was different to our teacher, it very well may have been a ‘religious studies’ segment of our young schooling lives.

Even then I remember thinking that it was all very interesting but completely implausible. Also Santa still rocked my world at that point, so I didn’t have room for other entities. J

Several years later, around the age of 15. I developed a crush (Oh my!) on a religious boy and so naturally I did what any infatuated girl would do. I went to church with him. I found the whole experience very touching and enjoyed the community. It was a lot of singing, praising and talking.

I would like to take this moment to point out that it is very moving sitting in a room with a load of people having an extremely emotional experience. I even felt God’s presence in those times and was awed myself. So I was quite happy to go along with it all, I didn’t even think about questioning the religion as the proof was in front of me every Sunday.

Then one Sunday we had a visitor. A Gay Liberal Pastor, he was very enthusiastic about God’s love and how God loves all his children; gay, straight, black, white, blue, short, tall, women, men, 3 legs, everyone. This message resonated with me and I agreed whole heartedly. However, our normal pastor had different ideas and the very next week his sermon was about why you should change for god. You should be white, male and a Christian, nothing else will do. I think that was the contradictory kick that finally engaged by brain to ask questions.

The first person I spoke to was my mother, she is very spiritual but definitely not a Christian and is always honest with me. She told me about her experiences talking to people of other faiths and suggested that I speak to as many people as possible. She then gave me some crucial advice. “Reading the bible is always a good start”

So that’s what I did. At the age of 15 I took on the challenge of reading a book the bored me ½ to death. Confusingly I found more contradictions in that book than I did between the 2 pastors. This is where my passion for knowledge really started.

So from here it was only a matter of time before I renounced what little faith I had. One thing always stuck with me, why did I feel so moved when people were singing/praising? The answer for me came when I spoke to my Science teacher, he pointed out that it’s very likely we pick up on what other people feel. We are social creatures; you can tell when someone’s uncomfortable, which makes you uncomfortable. A friend being in a good mood will lift you up too, it’s something we all experience and it made sense to me. A room full of 100 people crying happy tears and singing was bound to effect me.

So from that moment onwards I would pretty much say that I was an atheist and more importantly a skeptic or sceptic depending where you come from.

And that in a summary is why I am an atheist.