I was raised a Christian. Not a Catholic or a Protestant, a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness, but a Christian. My family never really had a denomination, nor did we consider ourselves the type to go to a non-denominational church, but we just never seemed to settle. With every new city came a new church, a new set of beliefs, a new name for ourselves. In Chicago we were Catholics, and I was baptized before I had learned to walk. In Naperville we were Methodists, and my brother too was baptized before he really had a say. In Seabrook we were Baptists for a short while before we fled that harsher faith, and then we were Presbyterians. My other brother was baptized there, and though he was old enough to walk to the baptismal font on his own two feet, he was yet uncomprehending of what it really meant. When we finally moved to The Woodlands, we were, and the rest of my family members still are, Lutherans.
My sister wasn't baptized until she was ten, and she knew what it meant and she accepted it as a part of who she was. She stood at the font of her own will, and she couldn't help but grin the entire time. It was the first time I ever saw her wear a white dress, and will likely be the last time until her wedding day. She doesn't often wear dresses, so it was almost eerie seeing her stand there, becoming an accepted part of something that I can never again experience.
You see, Christianity wasn't the only thing I was brought up into- I was also brought up to make my own decisions, and to a love of science that baffles even my parents. I'm enthralled by radio discussions of the brain chemistry behind human decision-making; my mom changes the station because she's falling asleep. I was always encouraged to pursue that which I loved, though, and because I loved science, my parents did all that they could to aid that. My favorite book as a kid was "The Big Book of Knowledge".
As I got older, I subscribed to magazines like Discovery, and eventually Scientific American and Science News. I read Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", and all that I could find on the big bang theory and dinosaurs and evolution and astronomy and I eventually found myself looking at the Bible as a work of fiction.
With all the evidence that I interpret in pointing to the contrary, I can no longer see it as truth. I've never experienced anything that indicated the presence of any god, but plenty that refutes one. Ascribing all of this universe, all of the beauty and the horror and even those things which cannot yet be explained, to a single being seems to me like giving credit to the creation of the internet to a single man.
I am, of course, but one person. My own beliefs have little effect on the human race as a whole, but the combined belief of millions can change the very course of history. It is not, then, god himself (if he does indeed exist) that makes things happen, but the people which believe in him. And for that reason, for the facts that I cannot ignore or explain away, I do not, and cannot, believe. I want to, but it's not possible for me, not any more.
So I ask of you who frequent this forum: do you believe in a god or a goddess or some higher power out there? Or do you, like me, believe this world is a freak accident? I intend this topic not as an attack on people of faith, or as a debate about the existence of a higher power, but as a discussion on individual beliefs and why people are inclined to believe as they do.
My sister wasn't baptized until she was ten, and she knew what it meant and she accepted it as a part of who she was. She stood at the font of her own will, and she couldn't help but grin the entire time. It was the first time I ever saw her wear a white dress, and will likely be the last time until her wedding day. She doesn't often wear dresses, so it was almost eerie seeing her stand there, becoming an accepted part of something that I can never again experience.
You see, Christianity wasn't the only thing I was brought up into- I was also brought up to make my own decisions, and to a love of science that baffles even my parents. I'm enthralled by radio discussions of the brain chemistry behind human decision-making; my mom changes the station because she's falling asleep. I was always encouraged to pursue that which I loved, though, and because I loved science, my parents did all that they could to aid that. My favorite book as a kid was "The Big Book of Knowledge".
As I got older, I subscribed to magazines like Discovery, and eventually Scientific American and Science News. I read Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", and all that I could find on the big bang theory and dinosaurs and evolution and astronomy and I eventually found myself looking at the Bible as a work of fiction.
With all the evidence that I interpret in pointing to the contrary, I can no longer see it as truth. I've never experienced anything that indicated the presence of any god, but plenty that refutes one. Ascribing all of this universe, all of the beauty and the horror and even those things which cannot yet be explained, to a single being seems to me like giving credit to the creation of the internet to a single man.
I am, of course, but one person. My own beliefs have little effect on the human race as a whole, but the combined belief of millions can change the very course of history. It is not, then, god himself (if he does indeed exist) that makes things happen, but the people which believe in him. And for that reason, for the facts that I cannot ignore or explain away, I do not, and cannot, believe. I want to, but it's not possible for me, not any more.
So I ask of you who frequent this forum: do you believe in a god or a goddess or some higher power out there? Or do you, like me, believe this world is a freak accident? I intend this topic not as an attack on people of faith, or as a debate about the existence of a higher power, but as a discussion on individual beliefs and why people are inclined to believe as they do.
