I think I was destined to become an atheist from the very beginning. When I was a child, saying my prayers with my sister, I never ended with the small word "amen", as everyone else did. Nobody explained what it meant and I didn't like using words I didn't know. Instead I used to end my prayers with "the car", since I was a huge fan of cars. It made so much more sense to me. I thought that God wouldn't mind.
When I was fourteen I went to confirmation camp and loved it. I started to become more and more involved with my church and I was convinced that there was a god. It was some years later, after I started high school, when I truly begun to doubt. IB was probably the best thing that could've happened to me. There I was taught how to think critically and it really helped me realize that there might not be such a thing as a god at all.
Those seeds of doubt and thought started to spread, but for a long while I thought myself more of an agnostic than atheist. Even though I had turned 18, I had not left my church, though I wasn't active anymore.
For a while I believed in a personal god, but not the one priests used to preach about. But the more I saw what religion was about, the less I believed.
One day I just had enough with my hypocrisy, I left the church. When the letter saying that I didn't belong the parish anymore, I felt a little bit queasy. For the rest of the day I walked around, afraid that a lightning would strike me down because of my cockiness. But nothing happened. Nor has anything bad happened to me since then. I actually got work when I needed it, got rid of my anxieties and have never been so balanced in my whole life.
So now I am a happy atheist, who despite my quite insignificant existence, try to make the most of my life and be of service for the members of my society before I die. And thank goodness I don't have to live forever. One lifetime is enough for me.
When I was fourteen I went to confirmation camp and loved it. I started to become more and more involved with my church and I was convinced that there was a god. It was some years later, after I started high school, when I truly begun to doubt. IB was probably the best thing that could've happened to me. There I was taught how to think critically and it really helped me realize that there might not be such a thing as a god at all.
Those seeds of doubt and thought started to spread, but for a long while I thought myself more of an agnostic than atheist. Even though I had turned 18, I had not left my church, though I wasn't active anymore.
For a while I believed in a personal god, but not the one priests used to preach about. But the more I saw what religion was about, the less I believed.
One day I just had enough with my hypocrisy, I left the church. When the letter saying that I didn't belong the parish anymore, I felt a little bit queasy. For the rest of the day I walked around, afraid that a lightning would strike me down because of my cockiness. But nothing happened. Nor has anything bad happened to me since then. I actually got work when I needed it, got rid of my anxieties and have never been so balanced in my whole life.
So now I am a happy atheist, who despite my quite insignificant existence, try to make the most of my life and be of service for the members of my society before I die. And thank goodness I don't have to live forever. One lifetime is enough for me.
When I was young, there was a god with infinite power protecting me. Is there anyone else who felt that way? And was sure about it? but the first time I fell in love, I was thrown down - or maybe I broke free - and I bade farewell to God and became human. Now I don't have God's protection, and I walk on the ground without wings, but I don't regret this hardship. I want to live as a person. -Arina Tanemura
