Growing up I always went to church with my friends. It was just something you did whenever you spent the night on Saturday, in the morning you went to church and you ate free doughnuts and listened to something called “Christian rap.” I’ve spent 90% of my life in Texas and 100% of my life being Atheist.Because of this I feel like I have a unique perspective on religion in general and religion when it comes to it on campus.
Let’s get something straight first; Atheism is just the absence of a religious faith or the belief of a higher being. It’s that simple.We don’t have any weird practices like sacrificing goats to Neil Degrasse Tyson or chanting the lyrics to Legally Blonde: The Musical. Although that would be pretty cool, the last one at least. Being Atheist is unique to each person and their reasons for being Atheist are, therefore, unique to them. But the majority of us don’t hate religion. Personally, I view religion as having a unique place in society and that the majority of the time religion is a good thing.
An amazing thing I’ve found across my friends who are Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, ect, is that each want the same thing. They want a peaceful and fulfilling life centered around helping others and being the best person they can be and I find that admirable. Atheists want all these things as well, we just have a different way of going about achieving them. Religion does this for them, but for me and millions of other Americans, it does not. And that’s completely fine.
Last week I was studying outside and within an hour two religious groups came up to me and wanted to talk about faith. Since Texas A&M is a predominately Christian campus, this is a normal thing.The first group asked if they could pray for and with me, I told them as politely as I could, “No, prayer is not going to benefit me in any way but thank you for the gesture”. The entire situation was awkward for me (and I’m sure for them) because either saying yes or no would have been strange.To say yes to someone to praying with me is to say, “Yes, I agree”, when I know I don’t. I would feel dishonest by lying to these two girls who wanted nothing more than to make a genuinely kind gesture towards me. But saying “No, but thank you” gives off the connotation that I’m offended in some way or look down on prayer but that’s not the case either.
The most commonly asked question I get about my lack of faith is, “What do you believe in then?” and I’m always happy to answer this. Atheism is often met with confusion because a lack of faith is never really seen as an option. I personally believe in my own experiences, I believe in science, and I believe in people.I never grew up in a religious household so being Atheist is not because of any bad experience with religion. There is no “hole in my life where God should be.” I promise.
My first experience with religion was during a sleep over when I was 6. I told my friends I didn’t go to church and was then given the crash course in all things Jesus and told to convert to Christianity. And for the longest time I thought this was just how it was supposed to be. Always uncomfortable, always assumed wrong because my ideas did not match up with theirs. I grew up knowing people believed in something called “God” and that I had to say his/her name in the Pledge of Allegiance every morning during school. I would pick up scraps of information about God from friends or from those few visits to church.
I think religion is an interesting thing. At 6 I became entrenched with the ideas behind religion and the way in which people can dedicate their entire lives to pursuing something based on pure faith. I started reading. I read the The Torah and the 5 books of Moses. I moved onto The Bible and then The Quran. I finished the Buddhist Tipitaka last month. After 16 years of reading and asking people about their faith, I remain in awe but firmly planted in be own beliefs. Religion is beautiful and complicated. It’s been debated and caused wars and enriched lives since it’s very beginning. Religion has it’s place in the lives of many, but not in mine.