Boston Atheists member Jon writes:
I'm a third generation atheist. My mother and her mother were proudly atheist and proudly Jewish (ethnically and culturally). My mother made me go to Sunday school to get a Jewish education but, in response to my complaints, she sat in on a class and was horrified when the teacher answered a question about whether Abraham might have been wrong to agree to whack Isaac with something like, "no, because God said so." That was the last time I went to Sunday School.
When I went to college I learned a little about philosophical skepticism, which led to my rebellious phase in which I became agnostic. Eventually, though, I realized that I believed in the nonexistence of gods as strongly as I believed in the nose on my face, and given my heritage it's hard not to believe in that! I went back to being an atheist when I realized how silly it was to be agnostic about my schnoz.
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This post is part of a series, in which members of the Boston secular community explain how they came to the decision to identify as atheists. To read more posts in the series, click here. To submit your own story, email bostonatheists@gmail.com.
I'm a third generation atheist. My mother and her mother were proudly atheist and proudly Jewish (ethnically and culturally). My mother made me go to Sunday school to get a Jewish education but, in response to my complaints, she sat in on a class and was horrified when the teacher answered a question about whether Abraham might have been wrong to agree to whack Isaac with something like, "no, because God said so." That was the last time I went to Sunday School.
When I went to college I learned a little about philosophical skepticism, which led to my rebellious phase in which I became agnostic. Eventually, though, I realized that I believed in the nonexistence of gods as strongly as I believed in the nose on my face, and given my heritage it's hard not to believe in that! I went back to being an atheist when I realized how silly it was to be agnostic about my schnoz.
*
This post is part of a series, in which members of the Boston secular community explain how they came to the decision to identify as atheists. To read more posts in the series, click here. To submit your own story, email bostonatheists@gmail.com.
