Abandon Religion
Most people who are brought up in Christian households never question their faith. More often than not, they are given no good reason to doubt their beliefs; they assume that God is gracious and loving. Society views religion as a source of goodness and charity. It is commonly believed that to oppose religion is to oppose all such goodness and charity that is stipulated to be with it. For most of my childhood, I believed all of these things. Growing up, I was never forced to go to church, but I did so because my parents did and I thought it was ‘fun’. I went to church every week naively believing that God was just. Like so many others, I never challenged the Christian ways that had been spoon-fed to me; I had no reason to. That is until I began to see acts of violence, tragedy, and evil greatly outweigh acts of love performed by this so-called compassionate God. My faith was truly challenged and destroyed three summers ago.
It was a day just like any other. The kind of day that you look back on and realize that it was the perfect day for everything to go wrong. Summer vacation had just started, so I spent the majority of my days relishing the fact that I didn’t have to worry about homework or studying. Any recognizable sleep pattern was practically non-existent as it was lost somewhere between having to wake up excruciatingly early and having the freedom to sleep all day if I wanted. By the time I managed to crawl out of bed, the June sun was high and unforgiving. I made my way down the creaky old stairs and stepped outside. I was overwhelmed by a wave of heat, and quickly turned around to return to the comforts of air-conditioning. Trying to decide what to do with my day became much easier at that moment because I automatically ruled out going outdoors. In an effort to relieve the boredom, I plopped down in front of my computer to surf the internet for awhile. I nonchalantly navigated from web page to web page, half distracted by the idea of a change of clothes. The sea of information did little to stimulate me, but I still had trouble finding the motivation to take a shower. My stomach growled; my body’s incessant reminder of hunger. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I began fantasizing about a huge bowl of Fruity Pebbles. I was interrupted mid-thought when the phone suddenly began to ring.
“Hello?” I impassively asked into the receiver.
Silence.
“Hello?” I asked again annoyed.
Still nothing. I was about to hang up when the voice on the other end said my name. At first I didn’t recognize my friend, but once I did I knew something was very wrong.
“Have you heard about Brooke?” she asked in [next page]