sent in by Nick

Let's see. My mother is Catholic, and my father was brought up as an agnostic who believed in God. They married in a Catholic church. My mom is a strong Catholic, attended a Catholic High School, and went to church before marrying my father. When I was born I was baptized, and that was my last experience with church. My mom didn't make us go to church because we were a working middle class family, we really didn't have time, and my mom was nice enough not to force religion on me. Although at school it was a different matter.

I live in an Hispanic and Filipino dominant community, so there are a lot of Catholics out there. One of my friends was one of them, he went to Sunday school, attended services regularly, all of that. When I was a child I wanted to learn about it, I wanted to know what Catholicism was all about, there was a few times I talked to my mom about it as well, I also prayed mostly every night, because I wanted to. As I grew up my views started to change, when I got into High School I moved from being a non-practicing Catholic to a god-questioning agnostic. I refused to believe God created the universe, and was a strong believer in science to explain life. As high school went on I became more and more atheistic, refusing there was a god, and keeping science as my explanation.

In 10th grade I was called a Satanist many times because of my alternative beliefs, I was constantly telling people, "If I don't believe in God, why would I believe in Satan?" They refused to listen. As my beliefs strengthened I started visiting an Atheist chat room, and then a heretics chat room, where I was met with people who I could associate with. I still occasionally called a Satanist, but more and more people just started ignoring me.

That's my story. I have expressed my anti-Christian thoughts more strongly by putting a cross-buster on my backpack and listening to more Bad Religion, an atheist punk band.


URL: http://joerazorsolo.vze.com

City: Vallejo

State: CA

Country: USA

Became a Christian: From birth

Ceased being a Christian: 14

Labels before: None

Labels now: Atheist, Wiccan, Anti-Christian, Anti-Religious

Why I joined: I was born into a Christian family

Why I left: Couldn't believe in God, wanted to think for myself