Doubting Thomas

[Fidel_Castronaut]

For me it was when I was at primary school around the age of say, 6? 7? The first time I could start to truly grasp the basics of the concepts that were being taught to me at school.

We had a 'good news' bible, you know the one with the rainbow and dove with the olive branch as a picture on the front?

I remember our headteacher/principle at the time (who was a big up member of the god squad) telling us the story of the arc and the message of hope it was supposed to bring to humanity. I'd always liked the picture so I remember being excited that we were going to listen to the story in full and talk about it some more.

And then I heard a story about genocide (I didn't know what genocide was at that age but I was able to grasp the idea of a flood drowning everyone) and it made me suddenly think that it sounded like the god of the bible was actually a bit of a dick and (when I could grasp the concepts a bit better) a murderer.

I never looked at that cover of the bible the same way again, nor indeed did I take seriously any of the other stories told to me about the bible god. Later, when I was about 10 or 11 and just before I left primary school here I remember that head teacher/principle ostracising me for asking why god wanted to kill everyone on the planet. Rather than respond to me the he told me off for asking the question, and behold his true fundamentalist character was revealed.

I also remember a teacher exodus on the year I left because they couldn't stand him and his preaching. The last I heard we was an advisor to local government on some matter of education but that was years ago.

I've never believed in a god or gods. My family aren't religious and we never discussed religion. My only interaction with it was with religious teachers at school (like my old head teacher), who made me stick to being an atheist.