Don't Tread On Me

I was once a Christian. Shocker, right?  My mother, who is the kindest person in the world, believed it was important that my brother and I be brought up as Christians. We both went to Sunday school when we were little, a Christian elementary school for 2nd-5th grade, a Lutheran middle school, and I went to a Catholic high school. Through the years, I learned all the basic tenets of Christianity. I was just another brick in the wall.

The story of how I became an apostate Christian is one of irony. Throughout high school, I began to question my faith, one piece at a time. I thought of myself as an agnostic Christian by the end of my Junior year. How that works, I don't know. During my Senior year, I was required to take a world religions class. I thought, "Okay, cool. It will be interesting to learn what others believe". My teacher, whose name I can not remember, was a devout Catholic like most of the teachers. But, he encouraged that we open our minds to the other religions. When I learned about Judaism, Islam, Shintoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism etc, my mind was opened. I felt reborn.

I saw that all the religions are teaching the same underlying shit, just a different asshole. For most of my life, I only knew one viewpoint, Christianity. Once I became an atheist, I was afraid of telling anyone, especially my family. I felt alone. I felt that it was taboo to speak out against my faith. I saw myself as a wounded lamb surrounded by hungry wolves. Now, I'm the wolf and they are the wounded lambs, and god damn it, I'm fucking hungry.


What am I getting at? I want all of my atheist/agnostic/humanist/secular/I-don't-know-what-I-am readers to know that they are not alone. We outnumber the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and other minority religions in this country. The time has come to make a stand, not only for yourself, but for science, thought and reason. No longer will we sit quietly and let the religious Christian majority walk all over us. No longer will we be respectful to their religion, fearing persecution. No longer will we be afraid, for we are a powerful force.

The 21st century is going to be the century of science, technology and rational thought. There is no room for religions that fundamentally require blind adherence and acceptance of dogma. This dogma goes against everything science and reason stand for. I am a thinking man, not a man told what to think. The age of domineering religion is over. The age of science and reason has begun. I will leave you with this. Will you look back on your life, the only life you will ever have, and know you made a difference for the betterment of humanity? Or, will you hide in your cave, fearing the religious man? I know my answer. Do you?





Note: I wrote this on 3 hours of sleep and lots of caffeine. I apologize for the quality/grammatical mistakes, as I am not functional enough to fix them.