Just like almost everyone else in my country, I was born and raised a Catholic. My country, Philippines has a stunning Catholicism percentage of 80% of the total population. And for 20 years I had wiped ivory statues on holy weeks and had adored priests without the knowledge that most of them (if not all) are child molesters. But just like the majority of Catholics, I never had the "connection" and "relationship" with my God.
Fast forward and I "accepted Jesus to be part of my life" when I was 21 and became a born-again Christian. I became a worship leader and sang for church services. I was baptized with my boyfriend and he became the drummer of the church band. As church workers, we were encouraged to read and familiarize the bible from cover to cover. Unlike me, my boyfriend was from a baptist church and had attended bible school, but he was open-minded and was never afraid to question every thing. Together, we had brain-stormed on the inconsistencies of the old testament. And we came up with the idea that the God of the old testament is a very selfish God (if you are an atheist who had read the old testament, you know what I mean), contrary to how the new testament is portraying him - a loving and forgiving Father who gave his only begotten son to save the world. He started reading and watching materials in atheism, at first, I dismissed the idea but eventually, I bought it.
In August 2012, the Philippines, particularly the Mindanao region was ravaged by a series of typhoons that left a lost of people homeless and hundreds of people died. And we started asking ourselves, "Where is God in all of these? Are we supposed to give thanks for the food that we eat when hundreds of kids don't have anything to eat?" Then, we decided to stop attending church services. It came as a shock to fellow churchgoers and for the next month or so, they visited us often and urged us to go back to 'the right path'. After roughly two months, I was already convinced that having imaginary friends is ridiculous. My boyfriend, who cannot fully dismiss the idea of a divine creator (but I cannot blame him since he had a longer 'relationship' with the sky bully), remained an agnostic. But as for me, I now fully dismiss the idea of the sky bully's existence.
Looking back to my experience, I despise religion because it promotes blind-folded fear. Faith hinders open-mindedness. Religion hinders success. For centuries, science had been trying hard to get the answers, yet the religious just get contented on not knowing.
I now refuse to be part of a religion that persecutes people because of their sexual orientation, who waive someone's right to happiness because he is gay or one who agrees on beating women because they are believed to be inferior to men. I refuse to believe in a religion who judges others because they believe otherwise - therefore I stopped believing to ANY religion.
I refuse to believe in an all-knowing God because of two reasons, (1) because there is no scientific evidence in the existence of one ; and (2) because I cannot fathom the idea of having an all-powerful, omnipotent God who just watches people suffer while sitting in his presumably throne of gold.
I am an atheist and I am proud to be one. Cheers for logic and reason!
