Boston Atheists member Annie ("grateful and proud!" [to be part of the BA community]) writes...
I became an atheist on December 26, 2004. (Ironically, the day after Christmas).
I was brought up in a Catholic family. My mom was religious and dragged me to church every Sunday. I did the whole first communion, confirmation thing...basically because I was told to. Dad didn't participate in any religion, and remained silent on the subject. The one time I felt brave enough to ask him how I was supposed to believe in god when I couldn't see him, he replied "you just have to have faith". My little nine year old mind just figured I must be missing something. Later, I understood the glaring hypocrisy of dad staying home on Sunday mornings claiming that he had faith, while Mom and I went to church.
In my twenties I got tired of mass and instead chose to worship St. Mattress every Sunday morning, which suited me fine. But I still called myself (and thought of myself) as a Catholic, just to hedge my bets.
On December 26, 2004 when the Tsunami in Indonesia claimed all those innocent lives, I finally decided that there isn't a god. And if there is a god, he sucks. Big time.
Then the 2009 Haiti Earthquake happened. And I got pissed.
My reading of Penn Jillette's "God, No!" enabled me to put an name to my beliefs and own them without the shame I'd been carrying.
I've "come out" to my friends, but not my family (yet)
This group has helped me immensely to shed the (useless, destructive and unfounded) embarrassment and shame I've felt at "betraying" my upbringing. Thank you everyone!!
*
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 became an atheist on December 26, 2004. (Ironically, the day after Christmas).
I was brought up in a Catholic family. My mom was religious and dragged me to church every Sunday. I did the whole first communion, confirmation thing...basically because I was told to. Dad didn't participate in any religion, and remained silent on the subject. The one time I felt brave enough to ask him how I was supposed to believe in god when I couldn't see him, he replied "you just have to have faith". My little nine year old mind just figured I must be missing something. Later, I understood the glaring hypocrisy of dad staying home on Sunday mornings claiming that he had faith, while Mom and I went to church.
In my twenties I got tired of mass and instead chose to worship St. Mattress every Sunday morning, which suited me fine. But I still called myself (and thought of myself) as a Catholic, just to hedge my bets.
On December 26, 2004 when the Tsunami in Indonesia claimed all those innocent lives, I finally decided that there isn't a god. And if there is a god, he sucks. Big time.
Then the 2009 Haiti Earthquake happened. And I got pissed.
My reading of Penn Jillette's "God, No!" enabled me to put an name to my beliefs and own them without the shame I'd been carrying.
I've "come out" to my friends, but not my family (yet)
This group has helped me immensely to shed the (useless, destructive and unfounded) embarrassment and shame I've felt at "betraying" my upbringing. Thank you everyone!!
*
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.
