by Ganymede314 » Fri May 24, 2013 8:09 pm
Ok I'll share.
I was raised a Catholic (in Ireland - so extra Catholic?), but I am an atheist now. I attended a convent school until I was 16, but I had lost any faith long before I left that school.
It was a very religious environment, we said prayers before every class, said the whole Rosary in the evening, and I have done all the childhood ceremonies, Baptism, Communion and Confirmation. I was even in the choir. It was shortly after my Confirmation (which happens at age 12) that I started seriously questioning this religion that I was now a "confirmed" member of, and questioning the idea of a God or Gods existing at all.
It might seem a strange turning point, but this is where I had my first serious problem with Catholicism:
When I was 12 my cat died, and I was obviously very sad in school the next day, and the teacher (who was a nun) asked what was up. I explained, and finished off by saying something like "but it's alright, because she was a good cat so I'll see her in heaven." The nun made a point of explaining to the entire class that in fact I wouldn't be seeing my cat in heaven because animals have no souls. Now, this didn't sit well with me at all, and not just because I was all sad. It just didn't make sense, we are not that different from other animals, we are animals after all. I asked where the distinction was between us and other animals, and never received a satisfactory answer, in fact the nuns got pretty pissed with all my questions.
Anyway, this was a revelation for me, I genuinely thought that that must be wrong. So I started asking more questions, and analysing the bible with a more sceptical eye. I didn't much like what I found, and was extremely frustrated with nuns telling me things like "it is not our place to question Gods plan" and "Jesus died for you, so you are insulting his name by questioning this" etc... They became kind of hostile towards me after a while, and because I was a rebellious teenager, that pushed me away even more. This led to me questioning not just Catholicism, but the idea of a God in general.
I do understand why people are religious. I get it. But for me, and I really don't want to offend anyone here, I found all the awe and wonder in the universe through science. We are able to discover the secrets of the universe, to actually understand them, using evidence. Actual, observable, real, magnificent beauty exists, and we are capable of knowing all this. No faith is needed to bask in the wonder of the universe, we can explain and understand these mysteries with science, a God figure is not necessary.
I realise that there are a lot of people who love science and are also religious, and that's cool. But for me, I just don't believe that a God exists. I have seen no evidence, and even if one does believe in a god, how do you know yours is the right one? There are far too many unanswerable questions for my liking. I generally don't talk about my religious views with people, because I end up offending them, and I really don't want to offend anyone. It is none of my business what anybody else believes, whatever makes your life happy. I may not believe in God, but I respect the views of others, so I hope we can all still be friends :)
I must say, though, that my local parish priest is a lovely person, and he knows I'm an atheist and never tries to make me feel bad or convert me. At my sisters wedding I abstained from taking Communion, obviously, and I was expecting to get a bollicking from him when I told him as much before hand, but he was grand with it. Ireland is not quite so heavily religious anymore, but my very very religious relations look disparagingly on my heathen ways. I am open to evidence, and if there is ever evidence that points to the existence of a god I will certainly consider it. I understand that there any infinitely many unanswered questions about the Cosmos, but at the moment, I cannot see how the answer to any of them is God.
Right, well that turned out very long, and a bit rambly, sorry. I hope my views aren't offensive to anyone, but I think this thread will be very interesting, and hopefully we will all still be friends regardless of our differing views.
"The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us -- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries."
-Carl Sagan