I suppose I should begin at the beginning.
My parents are both Christians. They were both raised in very conservative Christian households. So they brought me up in one. I went to Vacation Bible School and Sunday School and church every Sunday and things like that. I guess I believed it because I had always been told that it was true.
When I was 13, I became one of the core members of our church's youth group. I kept on that for a long time. I went to the Synod Youth Gatherings, to church camp, still went to youth forum, all that jazz. Last summer I went to Leadership Quest, a camp in Minnesota, which I considered to be the best week of my life at the time.
Sometime freshman year in high school, I started to get depressed. I eventually tried to kill myself, and obviously failed. I started to lose my faith. Then I began to listen to Rage Against the Machine, my favorite band. They really opened my eyes to a lot of the bigotry and hypocrisy involved in religion. I started questioning things until the whole idea of God sounded totally ludachris to me!
And here I am today. I've been an atheist for less than a year, but I think I'll be one the rest of my life.
My parents are both Christians. They were both raised in very conservative Christian households. So they brought me up in one. I went to Vacation Bible School and Sunday School and church every Sunday and things like that. I guess I believed it because I had always been told that it was true.
When I was 13, I became one of the core members of our church's youth group. I kept on that for a long time. I went to the Synod Youth Gatherings, to church camp, still went to youth forum, all that jazz. Last summer I went to Leadership Quest, a camp in Minnesota, which I considered to be the best week of my life at the time.
Sometime freshman year in high school, I started to get depressed. I eventually tried to kill myself, and obviously failed. I started to lose my faith. Then I began to listen to Rage Against the Machine, my favorite band. They really opened my eyes to a lot of the bigotry and hypocrisy involved in religion. I started questioning things until the whole idea of God sounded totally ludachris to me!
And here I am today. I've been an atheist for less than a year, but I think I'll be one the rest of my life.
