New to the forum

[ch3131]

Hello all, I am excited to say that I am now an atheist after being a baptist for my entire life. A brief intro about me. I am 23 years old and finishing up at University of California Riverside. In a sense I had always felt skeptical about religion but the support structure of my church was well designed to confront my disbelief with solidarity to keep me from questioning further. My deconversion happened ironically at a church retreat. On the last night everyone is usually pumped up with fervor and energy. There is singing, jumping, crying, etc. Usually I am part of it but I decided to just observe this time. I watched as the people held out their hands with tears in their eyes and shouting and yelping praise and I said to myself this looks just like North Korea. It didn't help that I went to a Korean church and everyone there was Korean. However not every deconversion is a single event. I went online and decided to research and like a lot of you here, Christopher Hitchens came up. That man changed my life. I started questioning god (I don't capitalize god anymore) and studying. I still have so much to learn and I hope you guys can help me along. Thank you.