Atheist: The Next Generation

Hi!
My name is Rebecca or Becky. You can call me either. But not Becca it's annoying to me for some reason. I live in Iowa and attend the local high school. My Mom is currently a Methodist/Agnostic my Dad was a Methodist when he was a kid, a Unitarian Universalist in Junior High, a Quaker for High school and most of his young adulthood and now he's an Atheist but not calling himself that.

I never had a very religious upbringing. My parents didn't take me to church when I was young and never told me what to believe. My older brother and sister where teenagers when I was born and were Atheist as long as I can remember.

When I was to young to think for myself I generally called myself an Atheist to gain acceptance with my brother and sister. They would have accepted me no matter what I believed but, you know how little siblings try to mimic older siblings.

When I was eleven, or nine (me and my mom disagree when exactly) my mom started taking me to the Methodist Church down the road. (Literally, it takes about 10 minutes to walk there from my house.) I kinda liked the singing and found the sirmens interesting when I got older and the community is always nice. By then I had started to think seriously about religion. After a few months or years of attending weekly I started to go though the motions of becoming a member and being confirmed, which, required me to attend Sunday school every week for six months.

I had been going on and off to sunday school for some time previously. I found it boring and tedious and the "discussions" were not so much about discussing as they were about leading us by the hand from point A to point B. Point A usually being (I'm simplifying here) "Dose Jesus love me?" and point B being "Yes, Jesus does love me!" I felt like I wasn't being challenged to think and figure things out for myself. And the fluffy, cuddly Jesus seen in pictures the youngest children color in, often with children or adorable baby sheep, did not appeal to my already mature world view.

I found a call to think for myself in the skepticism movement and to this day listen weekly to The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. After I was confirmed and Baptized I stopped going to Sunday school, mostly to have an extra hour to sleep in Sunday mornings. I started having long thinking sessions about religion and who I am and what I believe. One day, in the shower, during a particularly deep thinking session what I really believe deep down crystallized into a single sentence, "There probably isn't a God."

I pretended to pray in church and kept quiet when the subject of religion came up with my friends (Well, quiet for me anyway.). Now, after a while I'm coming out of closet. I tell all my friends, when the subject arises, without shame. (Okay, with some shame when they tell me that they are Baptist.) And happily will tell and argue my beliefs with anyone that will listen. (Recently I went to a weenie roast with my Baptist friend's church group. That was fun. ;) ) I've stopped going to church. Partly because I don't like the new minister and Sunday is usually my Dad's only day off and also it feels a bit hypocritical to be an atheist and go to church.

I've been searching for an Atheist community and this one seems nice. If I haven't bored you to death feel free do friend me or chat or leave a comment or what ever else you can do on this site. I'd like to feel like I'm not sending this out into space.

Thanks for reading :).