15-day atheist challenge, day 5.

Did you lose any friends because you decided to be an atheist? Did your family flip out?  

I can happily say that I didn't outright lose any friends... a few acquaintances from the church I was attending before I became an atheist simply reverted to ignoring me or giving me dirty looks, but none of my true friends totally dissed me... I feel like it's because a lot of them understand what it's like to "come out" in a Christian community--be they LGBT or non-Christian or both. Those of us with "alternative lifestyles" here in Louisiana gotta stick together, after all. :] There are many friends I simply didn't bother telling... I don't feel like the whole world needs to be all up in my grill.   

When I was a Christian I had an accountability partner, and he was absolutely, unequivocally my best friend. We shared absolutely everything with each other. Our relationship has suffered since I became an atheist, and that's really sad... but it happens. He's moving off for grad school next year, and I seriously regret not trying to connect with him these past few months. He's a dedicated, hardcore Christian, and I no longer ascribe to or support those beliefs--but I will always love the crap out of that boy.

I was outed to my family about a week ago, when my mom read through all of my private messages on Facebook... I was super mad at the time, as were my parents... but we've talked through everything. They, of course, are blaming my atheism on my boyfriend and swear up and down that it's "just a phase" and that deep down I still believe in the Christian god. They can believe whatever they want about my atheism, honestly... we've agreed to disagree, we don't bring it up anymore, and my boyfriend was able to be a part of the conversation. My grandmother and my uncle also know... and they've been nothing if not accepting and accomodating.

I've started being more open about my nonbelief, and my grandmother and I have gotten into a few heated debates on Facebook (haha), but it's all respectful. It's really nice to be able to express my opinions as an atheist without fear of being "found out."

I was pleasantly surprised by my family's reactions... and I'm so relieved that I'm finally out! :]

The atheists are coming...

So, just yesterday a senior at the public high school in my hometown declared that he did not want prayer at graduation... and that he would contact the ACLU if there were prayer. Well, the school has removed the prayer from the program and replaced it with a "moment of silence"... which, I think, is a great substitution that is respectful of the beliefs and non-beliefs of everyone who may be in attendance...

But it's not good enough for the folks of North Louisiana! This student has received multiple threats (some of them death threats). He's also had a terribly biased newspaper article written about him (that made the FRONT PAGE)... The town is in shambles, and many Christians are planning to rally and recite The Lord's Prayer during the moment of silence.

Let me repeat: the student is receiving DEATH THREATS. Christians showing off their "Christian love" once again!

I hate Louisiana. I'm surrounded by people who don't understand (or care about) the Constitution. Also, I've never seen so much hate in all my life. It seriously makes me ill.

Some linkage for you guys:
'Student challenges prayer at Bastrop graduation' - article from our local newspaper (the finest example of nonbiased journalism I ever did see)
Rock Beyond Belief's blog entry about this issue

In other news, my boyfriend has been here for the past few days to shield me from being completely alone with my parents now that I'm out... I'm pleased to report that things are going a lot better than I thought they would. :]

I'll be alone with my parents tonight but my mother's already decided that as long as we treat each other with respect there's no reason to keep talking about it... and I agree!

15-day atheist challenge, day 4.

Do you think religion is obsolete and should be wiped completely off the face of the Earth, or does some good come out of it?


IMHO, religion is bad to its very core. If there is one good that comes from religion it is consolation for people who are paralyzed with fear of dying... but then again I really don't think it's healthy or conducive to society for billions of people to be deluded either. If religion must exist, I think it should be an entirely private, individual matter. Yeah, go to church and read your Bible and pray if you want but don't try to spread it around (and I understand that this goes against everything the Christian Bible says, so... call it wishful thinking).


After I became an atheist, I felt like I had been played/controlled/manipulated/brainwashed/et cetera by religion. It exists to propagate itself, in order to control people. (I suggest reading "The God Virus" by Darrel Ray for more on this).

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful."

Outed.

I'm out. I accidentally left my Facebook logged in at my house and my mother pounced on the opportunity to read ALL of my private messages.

She's already told my dad, my grandmother, and my uncle--and this just happened last night. I'm sure she let the entire church know this morning.

So... I'm a little stressed, but at the same time a little relieved. Mostly infuriated that my mother has no respect for my privacy, but... whatever.

15-day atheist challenge, day 3.

Are you a more outspoken or more apathetic atheist? Why?

Well for me it really depends on the situation. I'm not completely out of the closet yet so when I'm around my family, my lips are sealed tight. However, when I'm blogging or at a freethought society meeting I tend to be pretty outspoken about my lack of belief. I really don't feel that atheism is something to be ashamed of, but I do know when to keep quiet. Because I live in the Bible Belt, I don't bring it up (or try to argue with theists) in class or at work. Many of my professors are Bible-believing Christians and while they don't proselytize in the classroom, they do bring up their faith occasionally.

It's really a bit of a balancing act, I guess. I'm sure if I lived in a more metropolitan area or further north then it wouldn't really be a big deal... but this is Louisiana and my family is very religious.

I would like to point out that I am in no way apathetic about my atheism. I keep quiet because I have to, but I definitely care. :]

15-day atheist challenge, day 2.

What religion did you grow up with? Did you have positive or negative experiences with religion?


I guess the easiest way to explain my religious background is to say that I attended a wide array of protestant Christian churches. My family moved a lot, and it seems like each time we moved we'd adopt a new denomination. When I really small (too young to remember) we attended a Methodist church, then we moved to an Assembly of God church (when I was at peak "playing pretend under the pews during church" age), and then to a Southern Baptist, then to a nondenominational, then back to a Southern Baptist... where we finally settled. My first two years in college I attended a massive, Southern Baptist megachurch (and dabbled in Pentecostalism, because I had a crush on a holy roller... bad idea).


Oddly enough, most of my experiences with religion were positive ones. Once I got into high school I was very active in church (mostly because my mom made me). I sang during service every Sunday, kicked ass at Bible drill, traveled on youth group trips, went to camps, etc. Once I started college I stopped going to church because it just never held my interest. I believed in god but I wasn't a very religious person, and church was boring.


Then, the unthinkable happened. My boyfriend (whom I was totes in lub with, btw) finally became such a massively insufferable prick that I dumped him and I finally realized that... hey, it's my freshman year in college, I've been completely and utterly dependent on my boyfriend and now I'm all alone in a strange place and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I was in the middle of an existential crisis, and in a state of emotional trauma that left me wide open to get bitten by the Jesus bug. All it took was for one of my friends to invite me to church and I was hooked. I latched on to my Bible, and to Bible study, and to Wednesday night worship, and to all of the friends who were cheering that I'd finally started getting involved in church. I rededicated my life to Christ. Of course I was tortured over the fact that I wasn't a virgin and that I went through a "bicurious" phase in high school and that I love sex, which led to me repressing my sexuality so much that I turned into a prude ("I'm not going to even kiss until I get married!")... but at the time I sincerely thought that I was doing the right thing, and I was happy to do it because it was what God wanted me to do.


I got baptized in the Gulf of Mexico the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college, and went to Hong Kong for a mission trip during Christmas break of my sophomore year... then I decided I want to be a full-time missionary to East Asia once I graduate college... and then the doubt started seeping in. And a year and a handful of months later, here I am posting on my atheism-centric blog about how awesome it is to be an atheist. :] Aaaah freedom.

15-day atheist challenge, day 1.

So you may have noticed a couple of weeks back that my blog completely disappeared for a few days... that's because, dear friends, for those of us on the quarter system it was finals week and I really couldn't afford any distractions (except Facebook, for reals). It was a crazy stressful week and I was spending a lot of time on my blog, so I decided to deactivate it to avoid the temptation until finals were over. And now that that hellacious quarter is over and done, I can start putting some serious work into the blog again. Yay! :]

Of course, now that I'm back I have no clue what to write about... so instead of going off on some useless tangent while watching a marathon of "Undateable" (guilty pleasure), I'm going to start this nifty little meme I found on Tumblr. It's called the 15-day Atheist Challenge, and basically it's 15 thoughtful questions to get your writing going... I think it'll be interesting to share these answers with you guys, and hear your answers too. Leave me a comment with the answer to the day's question and your thoughts, or if you decide to do the challenge yourself then point me in the direction of your blog and we can do this together! :]

Day 1: At what point did you know you were an atheist? Why did you become one? What were the factors leading up to the decision, if you weren't always one?


I realized I was an atheist in November of 2010, so I haven't really identified as atheist for very long. For about two years (starting in November 2008), I considered myself a "hardcore" Christian. I was crazy into mission work, an avid reader of C.S. Lewis and John Piper (and the like), and I spent an average of 10 hours a week in church or church-related activities. I was always a bit of a doubter, but after I got home from a mission trip to East Asia in January 2010 is when I really started having serious doubts about my religion. I could never justify the actions of Christians with the doctrine of "agape" love.

Around October 2010 is when I stumbled across an atheist blog that kind of slapped me in the face (it hasn't been updated in a while, but that didn't stop me from reading all of the posts). Weeks of feverish research followed... documentaries, books, articles, debates, every bit of information I could get my hands on. I joined a few atheist communities online and found that they were populated by kind, intelligent, open-minded people who encouraged me to make my own decision, something that a Christian would never do. Through my research I was able to find answers to questions that I didn't even realize I had. I realized that the reason I couldn't justify my faith was because my faith was unjustifiable.

I know I made the right decision in leaving my religion behind. In the past few months I've become a much more confident person and I definitely don't take bullshit like I used to. When I was a Christian, we were told that we should never be too happy or satisfied with our lives, lest we begin to pull away from God. Now that I'm an atheist, I've come to realize that you know what?? It's okay to be happy. Happiness, satisfaction, intelligence, rationality... these are not things to be ashamed of.