Ex-Christians

[TaraJo]

I used to be a Christian. I was born into a Catholic family and baptised as a baby, just like all good Catholic families do. Raised in church, went to CCD (I wish I remembered what that stood for) and all that. Stopped going about when I was 10 or so, partially because my dad got a job where he had to work Sundays quite a bit and partially because he was sick of the rest of the people at church telling him he's evil because he thinks Regan sucks.

Later on, I was 15 or so and I reignited my faith. I had a highschool girlfriend who was kinda religious, so I got into it and everything. Switched to Baptist, largely because I felt Catholicism was too ritualistic for me. And, yeah, got baptised again.

I think what stuck with me through all that time was that I never bothered to question whether god exists. God existing was always a given. Then, when I was 21 I had a painful, personal tragedy which I couldn't rectify with the belief in a loving, compassionate God. I searched for answers and the Bible had none for me. While I was searching for answers, I found some online atheist sites ad the rest is history. It became easier for me to accept the unfairness in the world if I lost my belief in an all-powerful, compassionate being.

On an interesting note, I think my boyfriend has been flirting with atheism. It's actually common for Mormons, when they leave the LDS church, to become atheists. The Mormon church specifically tells them that if they aren't true, no church is true. Kinda helps open their mind to the idea that no church is true.