#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  wakethestorm: Name: MarenAge: 18Location: Coeur d’ Alene, IdahoMy story: From the time I was born, I have been taught Christianity. This is a very common story, especially in conservative areas like North Idaho. I went to church every Sunday, said my prayers, all things that children who have been raised this way do. However, that is where my story branches off a bit from the norm. My mother’s second husband was a horribly emotionally abusive man with a twisted view of religion, and he punished me accordingly. If I did something he didn’t like, I was sat at the dining room table and instructed to write a Bible verse over and over. 100, 200, up to 500 times. Keep in mind I was no more than 7 years old. Eventually they divorced, and that particular torment was over, but I never recovered the initial respect and awe I had for the religion my family had always practiced. Over time, the pain I had suffered turned to anger. I still went to church, I still raised my hands and “spoke in tongues”, but I felt more and more disconnected not only from the display of deity worship itself, but from everyone around me who was wholeheartedly buying into it. Years later, I was sick of it. I felt like a liar, and a fraud. I resented every Christian I knew for teaching me to be such a bigoted, selfish, intolerant person. I was constantly anxious because I still have a shred of that belief that I was going to be struck down by lightning if I didn’t perform. I decided, if I was going to break off from everything I’d known, it would have to be quick, like ripping off a bandaid. So, I did what I needed to do. I came out to my family as queer, which was honestly a non event for me since it is such an integral part of who I am. I told them I didn’t believe what they had taught me growing up. I also told them it wasn’t their fault, nothing they did wrong, and that I loved them very much. The backlash was huge. But now, two years later, it was worth it. I am experiencing a freedom I never knew while I was bound by the chains of religious guilt. My fiance and I are expecting our first baby in December, and we have agreed to let them choose a religion (or none!) for themselves. No indoctrination for our family. No more indoctrination for me. 

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  wakethestorm:

Name: Maren
Age: 18
Location: Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho

My story: From the time I was born, I have been taught Christianity. This is a very common story, especially in conservative areas like North Idaho. I went to church every Sunday, said my prayers, all things that children who have been raised this way do. However, that is where my story branches off a bit from the norm. 
My mother’s second husband was a horribly emotionally abusive man with a twisted view of religion, and he punished me accordingly. If I did something he didn’t like, I was sat at the dining room table and instructed to write a Bible verse over and over. 100, 200, up to 500 times. Keep in mind I was no more than 7 years old.
Eventually they divorced, and that particular torment was over, but I never recovered the initial respect and awe I had for the religion my family had always practiced. Over time, the pain I had suffered turned to anger. I still went to church, I still raised my hands and “spoke in tongues”, but I felt more and more disconnected not only from the display of deity worship itself, but from everyone around me who was wholeheartedly buying into it. 
Years later, I was sick of it. I felt like a liar, and a fraud. I resented every Christian I knew for teaching me to be such a bigoted, selfish, intolerant person. I was constantly anxious because I still have a shred of that belief that I was going to be struck down by lightning if I didn’t perform. I decided, if I was going to break off from everything I’d known, it would have to be quick, like ripping off a bandaid. 
So, I did what I needed to do. I came out to my family as queer, which was honestly a non event for me since it is such an integral part of who I am. I told them I didn’t believe what they had taught me growing up. I also told them it wasn’t their fault, nothing they did wrong, and that I loved them very much. The backlash was huge.
But now, two years later, it was worth it. I am experiencing a freedom I never knew while I was bound by the chains of religious guilt. My fiance and I are expecting our first baby in December, and we have agreed to let them choose a religion (or none!) for themselves. No indoctrination for our family. No more indoctrination for me. 

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  behind-the-chair: My name is Brittany, I exist here. I didn’t really grow up with religion so I guess you can say I’ve always been an atheist. My Grandfather, who raised me, was brought up in a very strict Catholic house in Ireland so he did all he could to escape that once he came to the States. However, attending Mass once a week is still embedded in his brain even though he also practices Buddhism and meditation. But I digress…I DID give Catholicism the ol’ college try in my teens but that fell through pretty much immediately when I realized I would never conform to hatred, bigotry and misogyny. I live in sin with my boyfriend Alex in Tucson, AZ. We refuse to get married until EVERYONE can get married. Until then, we’re quite happy not having a piece of paper define our love. I don’t hate religion….I just hate what it has brought this world to. 

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  behind-the-chair:

My name is Brittany, I exist here.

I didn’t really grow up with religion so I guess you can say I’ve always been an atheist. My Grandfather, who raised me, was brought up in a very strict Catholic house in Ireland so he did all he could to escape that once he came to the States. However, attending Mass once a week is still embedded in his brain even though he also practices Buddhism and meditation.

But I digress…I DID give Catholicism the ol’ college try in my teens but that fell through pretty much immediately when I realized I would never conform to hatred, bigotry and misogyny.

I live in sin with my boyfriend Alex in Tucson, AZ. We refuse to get married until EVERYONE can get married. Until then, we’re quite happy not having a piece of paper define our love.

I don’t hate religion….I just hate what it has brought this world to. 

Submission fromnewjerseysuccess-story: My friend showed me this hilarious website Barbie Gone Bad and I laughed hysterically at this very offensive picture! Thought I’d share. Barbie on a Cross.

Submission fromnewjerseysuccess-story:

My friend showed me this hilarious website Barbie Gone Bad and I laughed hysterically at this very offensive picture! Thought I’d share.

Barbie on a Cross.

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from coffeewrites: Who I am… Hello my name is Thomas, and I am the First Lady of I H8 RELIGION (married to Tyler) and proud of it! My story… My Atheist Self began only two years ago when I started to really question nature,  think about life and death, and really tried to figure out how it all works. I was raised Times New Roman Catholic and had a very different view of it from the start. Both my parents were spiritual in their own way: my father believed in UFO’s so I was allowed to learn about space and the universe in my home but not at school.  Meanwhile, my mother believed in angels and that hell was on earth so that was my home - life growing up with the knowledge of a deity. As the decades passed I developed my own relationship with nature because it was the only tangible proof I had for what they were telling me. But I liked the idea of gods and was inspired by it so much that I created my own god in a story, one with her own universe to play in. And this is what kept me on the fence about religions and deities, also, it was a good way for me to try and understand what they were talking about and I could then change what I didn’t like in religion that I witnessed. With my universe being the center of my attention for my teens and twenties I never really thought about a life without the idea of a god above and the devil bellow and it was about two years ago I read a book “The God Delusion” and hopped off the fence into the expansive field filled with grains of truth … Atheism. Throughout all of this, Tyler was always supportive and encouraged me to seek out my own truth. This is how I became  #MyAtheistSelf !

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from coffeewrites:

Who I am…

Hello my name is Thomas, and I am the First Lady of I H8 RELIGION (married to Tyler) and proud of it!

My story…

My Atheist Self began only two years ago when I started to really question nature,  think about life and death, and really tried to figure out how it all works. I was raised Times New Roman Catholic and had a very different view of it from the start. Both my parents were spiritual in their own way: my father believed in UFO’s so I was allowed to learn about space and the universe in my home but not at school.  Meanwhile, my mother believed in angels and that hell was on earth so that was my home - life growing up with the knowledge of a deity.

As the decades passed I developed my own relationship with nature because it was the only tangible proof I had for what they were telling me. But I liked the idea of gods and was inspired by it so much that I created my own god in a story, one with her own universe to play in. And this is what kept me on the fence about religions and deities, also, it was a good way for me to try and understand what they were talking about and I could then change what I didn’t like in religion that I witnessed.

With my universe being the center of my attention for my teens and twenties I never really thought about a life without the idea of a god above and the devil bellow and it was about two years ago I read a book “The God Delusion” and hopped off the fence into the expansive field filled with grains of truth … Atheism.

Throughout all of this, Tyler was always supportive and encouraged me to seek out my own truth.

This is how I became  #MyAtheistSelf !

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  Angie: Name: Angie www.youngatheist.tumblr.com Location: NY, New York My Story:       Although I’ve realized god doesn’t exist for a little more than a year now, it has been the most eye-opening experience for me and I truly feel like I’ve matured and changed in such a way that I want everyone to become an atheist to just feel what I felt. It was freeing realizing that this invisible man in the sky wasn’t controlling my life; I am. I was raised in a house that was relatively secular, however we labelled ourselves Muslim since an ancestor of ours was an imam (and that title is in my last name, joy) but my parents were hands off with religious topics. I actually became an atheist because of tumblr, the posts I have read on ih8religion (thanks tyler) as well as a few others pages. I did my research, now I know more than most people of a specific religion even believe, and I argue my point whenever needed. I have started a Freethinkers club for this reason, and plan to help spread acceptance and decrease the amount of hatred present in the world. Although I know one person cannot change  the world, I also know that I can be a catalyst in a movement which can help change the world. After all, if one person hadn’t said something, African Americans and women still wouldn’t have rights. All I want is a better future for myself and future generations, so I have to do something to help, that’s what god put me on this earth to do (joking)

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  Angie:

Name: Angie

www.youngatheist.tumblr.com

Location: NY, New York

My Story:

      Although I’ve realized god doesn’t exist for a little more than a year now, it has been the most eye-opening experience for me and I truly feel like I’ve matured and changed in such a way that I want everyone to become an atheist to just feel what I felt.

It was freeing realizing that this invisible man in the sky wasn’t controlling my life; I am. I was raised in a house that was relatively secular, however we labelled ourselves Muslim since an ancestor of ours was an imam (and that title is in my last name, joy) but my parents were hands off with religious topics. I actually became an atheist because of tumblr, the posts I have read on ih8religion (thanks tyler) as well as a few others pages.

I did my research, now I know more than most people of a specific religion even believe, and I argue my point whenever needed. I have started a Freethinkers club for this reason, and plan to help spread acceptance and decrease the amount of hatred present in the world. Although I know one person cannot change  the world, I also know that I can be a catalyst in a movement which can help change the world. After all, if one person hadn’t said something, African Americans and women still wouldn’t have rights. All I want is a better future for myself and future generations, so I have to do something to help, that’s what god put me on this earth to do (joking)

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from   beard-guy: Name:  Shawn Age:  25 Location:  Fort Smith, Arkansas I live in the bible belt so religion is pushed down my throat so often it’s a wonder I haven’t choked to death.  When I was in elementary school a friend of mine told me that their parents said we couldn’t be friends anymore because I did not go to church.  What a horrible thing to tell a child!  My parents considered themselves christian but did not go to church at the time.  Eventually, however, my mom decided we should start attending.  We went to a church of christ for a while.  The first preacher we had moved to Texas and we later learned he got arrested there for child molestation.  Our second preacher made sure my parents knew that if me or my sister fell down a flight of stairs and died before being baptized we would surely go to hell.  My parents eventually decided this was not the church for us and announced to our preacher that we would be leaving.  They were told that their souls would be lost to hell if we left that church.  Who knew a church of christ in Fort Smith, Arkansas was THE church that held the key to getting into heaven?  Anyway, we tried out numerous other churches, most which required you to pay a percentage of your income to the church every Sunday in order to be a member.  My sister and I never enjoyed going to church and finally my parents gave up.  My sister and I both somehow managed to educate ourselves and are no longer indoctrinated.  My parents are disappointed that we no longer believe but do not disown us and sometimes It seems they agree with our logic, but simply cannot admit the truth to themselves.

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from   beard-guy:

Name:  Shawn

Age:  25

Location:  Fort Smith, Arkansas

I live in the bible belt so religion is pushed down my throat so often it’s a wonder I haven’t choked to death.  When I was in elementary school a friend of mine told me that their parents said we couldn’t be friends anymore because I did not go to church.  What a horrible thing to tell a child!  My parents considered themselves christian but did not go to church at the time.  Eventually, however, my mom decided we should start attending.  We went to a church of christ for a while.  The first preacher we had moved to Texas and we later learned he got arrested there for child molestation.  Our second preacher made sure my parents knew that if me or my sister fell down a flight of stairs and died before being baptized we would surely go to hell.  My parents eventually decided this was not the church for us and announced to our preacher that we would be leaving.  They were told that their souls would be lost to hell if we left that church.  Who knew a church of christ in Fort Smith, Arkansas was THE church that held the key to getting into heaven?  Anyway, we tried out numerous other churches, most which required you to pay a percentage of your income to the church every Sunday in order to be a member.  My sister and I never enjoyed going to church and finally my parents gave up.  My sister and I both somehow managed to educate ourselves and are no longer indoctrinated.  My parents are disappointed that we no longer believe but do not disown us and sometimes It seems they agree with our logic, but simply cannot admit the truth to themselves.

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  fortheloveof-whores: Name: Ryann  Age: 16Story: I wasn’t raised in a particularly religious house. My mom’s half of the family was predominantly Jewish - so we celebrated Hanukkah, but my mom and my dad’s half of the family were some type of Christianity - so we also celebrated Christmas. Neither of those holiday’s were very religious for us, mostly about getting the family together and presents. Each year me and my sister would set up the little nativity scene we had for Christmas, but it was - well, I don’t really know why, but it didn’t seem to have a strong religious basis. My mom would be more preoccupied with having us leave food for “the reindeer and santa” than she was about the religious aspects, our Jewish neighbor even brought her children over one time to decorate the tree and do the “reindeer food” - so yeah, obviously we weren’t very religion oriented.  I don’t remember much about religion from my childhood besides the holidays, it just really didn’t play much of a role in my life until later on. One instance I do remember, though, is when I was taking karate around Christmas time and a girl I used to be acquainted with told me not to say “X-Mas” because it was crossing out the “Christ” in “Christmas” - and at the time, I thought that was just terrible and agreed never to do it again. How silly was I, back then? Well when I hit highschool that’s when things really changed. I don’t think I ever consciously decided that I’d identify with atheist, I just…stopped believing in the God and Jesus bullshit. I made my religion on facebook “atheist” and my dad told me to take it down and said I was ‘going to hell’ for it - even though he himself dislikes organized religion. We discussed it later on and I don’t remember exactly why he said it, but it wasn’t because he actually believed that I was going to hell. Another time I remember is when one of my peers found out I was an atheist he was just…absolutely shocked, like he didn’t realize people who weren’t his religion existed. This was around the same time I became very critical of religion, cracking crude religious jokes and pointing out all the flaws in faith whenever the chance presented itself. Debate was my thing. Soon after, though, I began to affiliate myself with Wicca because I believed all the nonsense spread about it and didn’t look into the actual religion, but I was never really as into it as I thought it was and drifted back to atheist before looking into LaVeyan Satanism - and that takes me to the most recent branch of my religious journey. I ordered a copy of the Satanic Bible from the Library, not even 10 libraries in the whole US have it! But they cancelled my order without telling me, so I bought my own copy…it irked me that it was classified under fantasy instead of religion. Well I read it, and I really do enjoy it - it’s absolutely fascinating and the best religion I’ve ever heard of by far, and a lot of their ideals are things I already believed in…I totally thought it was the religion for me! But, as righteous as it is, It…just didn’t click with me.  So I’m back to being a godless heathen atheist, with some Satanic influence >:]

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  fortheloveof-whores:

Name: Ryann 

Age: 16

Story: I wasn’t raised in a particularly religious house. My mom’s half of the family was predominantly Jewish - so we celebrated Hanukkah, but my mom and my dad’s half of the family were some type of Christianity - so we also celebrated Christmas.

Neither of those holiday’s were very religious for us, mostly about getting the family together and presents. Each year me and my sister would set up the little nativity scene we had for Christmas, but it was - well, I don’t really know why, but it didn’t seem to have a strong religious basis. My mom would be more preoccupied with having us leave food for “the reindeer and santa” than she was about the religious aspects, our Jewish neighbor even brought her children over one time to decorate the tree and do the “reindeer food” - so yeah, obviously we weren’t very religion oriented. 

I don’t remember much about religion from my childhood besides the holidays, it just really didn’t play much of a role in my life until later on. One instance I do remember, though, is when I was taking karate around Christmas time and a girl I used to be acquainted with told me not to say “X-Mas” because it was crossing out the “Christ” in “Christmas” - and at the time, I thought that was just terrible and agreed never to do it again. How silly was I, back then?

Well when I hit highschool that’s when things really changed. I don’t think I ever consciously decided that I’d identify with atheist, I just…stopped believing in the God and Jesus bullshit. I made my religion on facebook “atheist” and my dad told me to take it down and said I was ‘going to hell’ for it - even though he himself dislikes organized religion. We discussed it later on and I don’t remember exactly why he said it, but it wasn’t because he actually believed that I was going to hell. Another time I remember is when one of my peers found out I was an atheist he was just…absolutely shocked, like he didn’t realize people who weren’t his religion existed. This was around the same time I became very critical of religion, cracking crude religious jokes and pointing out all the flaws in faith whenever the chance presented itself. Debate was my thing.

Soon after, though, I began to affiliate myself with Wicca because I believed all the nonsense spread about it and didn’t look into the actual religion, but I was never really as into it as I thought it was and drifted back to atheist before looking into LaVeyan Satanism - and that takes me to the most recent branch of my religious journey.

I ordered a copy of the Satanic Bible from the Library, not even 10 libraries in the whole US have it! But they cancelled my order without telling me, so I bought my own copy…it irked me that it was classified under fantasy instead of religion. Well I read it, and I really do enjoy it - it’s absolutely fascinating and the best religion I’ve ever heard of by far, and a lot of their ideals are things I already believed in…I totally thought it was the religion for me! But, as righteous as it is, It…just didn’t click with me. 

So I’m back to being a godless heathen atheist, with some Satanic influence >:]

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  zorkat: Name: Kate Age: 23Location: Brisbane, Australia.  My mum is religious, but I am not sure entirely what my dad’s view on religion is. Mum didn’t shove her religion down my throat, she never forced us to beleive but she did send me and my 3 other siblings to sunday school and she used to say a sort of prayer at bedtimes when I was really young. She also bought me a ‘bible’s stories’ book which I read several times, but never beleived the stories and a mini psalm book. Mum would tell me things like how she beleived angels were watching over us from heaven, and other things like that. I wanted to believe, just like I wanted to beleive so badly that fairies existed but I couldn’t. I remember talking out loud to “God” and begging him to show me a sign or else I would not believe in him. I was very skeptical of him. For as long as I can remember though, I’ve been unsure there ever was a God; it just didn’t make sense to me. My dad was always going on about how terrible religion was - how it caused wars and so on - he sounded very bitter about it. It wasn’t until I was older (only a few years ago now) that I found out he was quite religious, and used to attend church regularly as a young man, until I got very sick when I was two and nearly died. As a result, he apparently never went to church ever again,  and my aunt said, that he had lost his faith then. So you could say I’ve always been agnostic in my childhood, and atheist since my early teens. I’m lucky that dispite my mother and her side of the family being incredibly religious (her sister/brother/parents all go to church regularly) - that my father raised us to decide what we thought for ourselves (and ‘protected’ us from our Grandmother trying to shove her religion down our throats). I’m very glad he let us think for ourselves instead of letting anyone brainwash our impressionable young minds. 

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  zorkat:

Name: Kate 
Age: 23
Location: Brisbane, Australia. 

My mum is religious, but I am not sure entirely what my dad’s view on religion is. Mum didn’t shove her religion down my throat, she never forced us to beleive but she did send me and my 3 other siblings to sunday school and she used to say a sort of prayer at bedtimes when I was really young. She also bought me a ‘bible’s stories’ book which I read several times, but never beleived the stories and a mini psalm book. Mum would tell me things like how she beleived angels were watching over us from heaven, and other things like that. I wanted to believe, just like I wanted to beleive so badly that fairies existed but I couldn’t. I remember talking out loud to “God” and begging him to show me a sign or else I would not believe in him. I was very skeptical of him. For as long as I can remember though, I’ve been unsure there ever was a God; it just didn’t make sense to me.

My dad was always going on about how terrible religion was - how it caused wars and so on - he sounded very bitter about it. It wasn’t until I was older (only a few years ago now) that I found out he was quite religious, and used to attend church regularly as a young man, until I got very sick when I was two and nearly died. As a result, he apparently never went to church ever again,  and my aunt said, that he had lost his faith then.

So you could say I’ve always been agnostic in my childhood, and atheist since my early teens. I’m lucky that dispite my mother and her side of the family being incredibly religious (her sister/brother/parents all go to church regularly) - that my father raised us to decide what we thought for ourselves (and ‘protected’ us from our Grandmother trying to shove her religion down our throats). I’m very glad he let us think for ourselves instead of letting anyone brainwash our impressionable young minds. 

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  buhbuhbuhbrittany: My name is Brittany, I’m 24, from South Florida, but currently living in Pittsburgh, studying makeup effects, and painting. My story isn’t a common one, although I have met people that have the same type of family as I do.Growing up I was raised in a religious household, both of my grandmothers were Roman Catholic, and so my sister and I were baptized. My mom and dad were pretty close, but had sort of a weird relationship from what I remember, they argued a lot, but still had a lot of fun together with us. I remember at about age 4 I had my christening, half way down the aisle, I threw my candle on the floor and shouted “NO, I DON’T WANNA”, I guess that should have been a sign to my mother then and there, she had to pick me up and run me out of the church, haha. She still has the broken candle. When I was 5 years old my parents got into one of the most memorable fights of my life, this fight lead to their divorce. It wasn’t shortly after that our church and connected Catholic school caught wind of the reason behind the divorce.My father is gay, and had come out to my mother.When this got out, it spread like wild fire, and the entire Catholic community was appalled, the screwed up thing about this was, they weren’t just appalled with my father, they were completely disgusted with my mother, my sister and myself.As if we had a say in how he was born. Anyway, since this was such a demeaning display on the Catholic church in our community, they immediately asked my mother to remove us from their school, and not to return to the church, saying this “You and your family have disgraced the name of the Lord, and you are no longer seen as children of God”. I didn’t know about any of this until I was about 9 or 10, I was too young to understand at the time. After all this happened, my mother, who was once a very religious person, became a very spiritual person. She taught us to believe in science, theory, and spiritual beings. I remember always that my mom told me that Aliens make more sense. Haha, she’s right, I know I don’t believe in God, but I sure as hell believe in the Anunnaki.  Since then I’ve completely removed the theory of God from my life, and I’ve always had the mentality: “if God can be represented with such hatred, and turn his back on us, then I’m turning my back on him”.  I know that I have an awesome family, that love and supports my sister and I, and we don’t judge one another, so if there were ever to be a God(hypothetically speaking), he can go fuck himself for letting people who represent him disgrace our mother in a time of need, and her children that were only 5 and 6 years old. Religion is not a beautiful thing in my opinion, it’s a mountain of judgement and nothing but added stress to someone’s life. People need to quit worrying and just live. 

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  buhbuhbuhbrittany:

My name is Brittany, I’m 24, from South Florida, but currently living in Pittsburgh, studying makeup effects, and painting.

My story isn’t a common one, although I have met people that have the same type of family as I do.
Growing up I was raised in a religious household, both of my grandmothers were Roman Catholic, and so my sister and I were baptized. 
My mom and dad were pretty close, but had sort of a weird relationship from what I remember, they argued a lot, but still had a lot of fun together with us.
I remember at about age 4 I had my christening, half way down the aisle, I threw my candle on the floor and shouted “NO, I DON’T WANNA”, I guess that should have been a sign to my mother then and there, she had to pick me up and run me out of the church, haha. She still has the broken candle. 
When I was 5 years old my parents got into one of the most memorable fights of my life, this fight lead to their divorce. It wasn’t shortly after that our church and connected Catholic school caught wind of the reason behind the divorce.
My father is gay, and had come out to my mother.
When this got out, it spread like wild fire, and the entire Catholic community was appalled, the screwed up thing about this was, they weren’t just appalled with my father, they were completely disgusted with my mother, my sister and myself.
As if we had a say in how he was born. 
Anyway, since this was such a demeaning display on the Catholic church in our community, they immediately asked my mother to remove us from their school, and not to return to the church, saying this “You and your family have disgraced the name of the Lord, and you are no longer seen as children of God”.

I didn’t know about any of this until I was about 9 or 10, I was too young to understand at the time. 
After all this happened, my mother, who was once a very religious person, became a very spiritual person. She taught us to believe in science, theory, and spiritual beings. I remember always that my mom told me that Aliens make more sense. Haha, she’s right, I know I don’t believe in God, but I sure as hell believe in the Anunnaki. 

Since then I’ve completely removed the theory of God from my life, and I’ve always had the mentality: “if God can be represented with such hatred, and turn his back on us, then I’m turning my back on him”.

 I know that I have an awesome family, that love and supports my sister and I, and we don’t judge one another, so if there were ever to be a God(hypothetically speaking), he can go fuck himself for letting people who represent him disgrace our mother in a time of need, and her children that were only 5 and 6 years old. 
Religion is not a beautiful thing in my opinion, it’s a mountain of judgement and nothing but added stress to someone’s life. People need to quit worrying and just live. 

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  irantthereforeiam: Name: Sian Age: 18 Country: UK. Bio: I think it’s different, over in England. Religion isn’t as big a deal as it is over in the USA. I did go to sunday school from being young and I suppose to some extent I believed in it. My Dad has always been very atheist and religion wasn’t pushed on me at all by either of my parents. I went through a process growing up where I told everyone I believed in God and tried to make myself believe in it, I wanted the fulfilment I thought I could get from it. I suppose I believed in it like you would Santa Claus, I knew it was rubbish but I wanted to keep the magic going a bit longer. My friends Grandad that I knew quite well died and he suffered so terribly, he couldn’t remember my friend and was ever so confused. It was such a humiliating way to die for someone who had always been such a strong and kind person. I can remember my friend saying ‘Why would God have let that happen to someone like my Grandad.’  And that was it really, I couldn’t force myself to believe in it any more. I’ve been Atheist about four years now and I’m happy.

#MyAtheistSelf project submission from  irantthereforeiam:

Name: Sian

Age: 18

Country: UK.

Bio: I think it’s different, over in England. Religion isn’t as big a deal as it is over in the USA. I did go to sunday school from being young and I suppose to some extent I believed in it. My Dad has always been very atheist and religion wasn’t pushed on me at all by either of my parents.

I went through a process growing up where I told everyone I believed in God and tried to make myself believe in it, I wanted the fulfilment I thought I could get from it. I suppose I believed in it like you would Santa Claus, I knew it was rubbish but I wanted to keep the magic going a bit longer.

My friends Grandad that I knew quite well died and he suffered so terribly, he couldn’t remember my friend and was ever so confused. It was such a humiliating way to die for someone who had always been such a strong and kind person. I can remember my friend saying ‘Why would God have let that happen to someone like my Grandad.’ 

And that was it really, I couldn’t force myself to believe in it any more. I’ve been Atheist about four years now and I’m happy.