(Via Jason)
I don’t remember the exact moment I became an atheist (I think it was more of a slow draining away, but I remember why.
I was raised Catholic, spend a couple of years as an agnostic, and then became a born-again christian my second or third year of high school. I was desperately wanting to belong to something, and they found me first. *laughs*
Mostly as a result of attending this particular christian missionary alliance church, the idea of a christian god just stopped making sense to me. My mind could no longer accept the idea of an all-powerful god who allowed the type of suffering I saw in the world; around this time, I think I saw a story of a five-year-old boy who was raped and murdered, as that is the specific example I quoted the most relating to my new found non-acceptance.
I spent a short while believing in the idea of a “watchmaker god”, then – finally – logic took over and I just decided not to spend time thinking about something that was a non-topic, as it could never be proved or disproved. I had recently started working at a Children’s Science Center, and fell in love with the idea of science and the natural world. I realized real science was so much more amazing than anything any human could dream up.
On a side note, for some reason I held on to other supernatural beliefs for a wee bit after becoming an atheist; after working at the science center for a while, all of the fell away as well. I am now a full-fledged, proud skeptic.
Tags: science
December 29th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Wow. I thought I proofread this. Please forgive the typos!
February 18th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Sounds like they didn't get ahold of you during that formative first 11 or 7 years, or whatever it is they say. Good for you. Yay, skepticism!