Hello everyone,
I'm a 26 year old girl living in Central Florida. My deconversion story starts with hyper Baptist fundamentalists on my father's side of my family attempting to indoctrinate me before I could even rationally consider ideas like God and heaven and hell. I remember at a very early age visiting them - they are a huge family - and getting all kinds of Christian tapes, books and other propaganda aimed at toddlers, and having to dress up and go to Church, only when they were around. My immediate family is pretty lackluster about Christianity. When my Dad's parents were around we had to put on a show for them to some extent.
Eventually when I got older I started thinking about God and the afterlife. At about 14, when I had internet access, I learned about atheism and what it was. I was afraid of it at first, because at the time I still believed in God and thought he would be mad and punish me for thinking about atheism and secular humanism and blasphemous ideas like that.
But I kept reading more and more about it. One of the first sites that made me laugh at religion was LandoverBaptist.org. At 16 years old I decided I was an atheist, and I got really into atheism and learning about it. I was involved in a chatroom full of other nonbelievers and got into debating with alot of religious people. I learned all about what they believe and why, what their answers were to certain atheist doubts, and ultimately what I discovered in this, was that it's pretty much a faith vs reason issue. Reason is on the side of atheism, and the Christians always wind up saying it's a matter of faith when they can't answer you on some point. But they have yet to convince me why I should put faith over reason.
I've lost almost all interest in debating or arguing with theists. I'm making comics and art centered around ideological/religious themes. My baptist grandparents haven't seen me in a long, long time, and probably don't have any idea that I do not share the same religious views as them, let alone that I'm a completely godless heathen now. I'm a little afraid of how they'd react if they ever found out, though if it ever came up I'd have to tell them. I can't end up in a church again, it'd be so weird.
I'm a 26 year old girl living in Central Florida. My deconversion story starts with hyper Baptist fundamentalists on my father's side of my family attempting to indoctrinate me before I could even rationally consider ideas like God and heaven and hell. I remember at a very early age visiting them - they are a huge family - and getting all kinds of Christian tapes, books and other propaganda aimed at toddlers, and having to dress up and go to Church, only when they were around. My immediate family is pretty lackluster about Christianity. When my Dad's parents were around we had to put on a show for them to some extent.
Eventually when I got older I started thinking about God and the afterlife. At about 14, when I had internet access, I learned about atheism and what it was. I was afraid of it at first, because at the time I still believed in God and thought he would be mad and punish me for thinking about atheism and secular humanism and blasphemous ideas like that.
But I kept reading more and more about it. One of the first sites that made me laugh at religion was LandoverBaptist.org. At 16 years old I decided I was an atheist, and I got really into atheism and learning about it. I was involved in a chatroom full of other nonbelievers and got into debating with alot of religious people. I learned all about what they believe and why, what their answers were to certain atheist doubts, and ultimately what I discovered in this, was that it's pretty much a faith vs reason issue. Reason is on the side of atheism, and the Christians always wind up saying it's a matter of faith when they can't answer you on some point. But they have yet to convince me why I should put faith over reason.
I've lost almost all interest in debating or arguing with theists. I'm making comics and art centered around ideological/religious themes. My baptist grandparents haven't seen me in a long, long time, and probably don't have any idea that I do not share the same religious views as them, let alone that I'm a completely godless heathen now. I'm a little afraid of how they'd react if they ever found out, though if it ever came up I'd have to tell them. I can't end up in a church again, it'd be so weird.
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