Reflection On Honey You Re Scaring Children

Honey, You’re Scaring The Children When I realized I can think for myself -- that I can question things-- is when I truly started living. When I stepped outside of myself, and questioned something for what it was or what it could be. When I completely eliminated bias as a whole; or at least how I saw it from my window of perspective; this was living. This topic I am about to bring up is..controversial and is something that you may not agree with yourself; the topic I am implying is religion. Note that what I am about to say is nothing more than a result of my personal journey, and in no way am I trying to sell you this way of thinking -- you decide that for yourself.

During the summer of last year I was really into Christianity, I wanted
to be closer to God and understand what I was worshipping. I wanted to know more than just the face value stories that churches tells (the gospels). I studied the Bible vigorously and tried to make sense of why so many people follow this religion. I soon found that most people are just born into it or scared into it.. little did I know, a good number of christians don’t even read anything except the church staples. Pretty much after I began reading some of the Old Testament is when I started to question my faith -- not to sound cliche. Why did I dedicate so much of my life to this religion? I never questioned why, I always assumed everything in the Bible was true. Due to my family’s religious background, I was always told, “never question the lord” or whatever and I just never really thought different because honestly, I was terrified of going to Hell. I was terrified of not being good enough for God. It was one of my biggest fears as a christian and was one of the big reasons I wanted to get close to God. What really sparked this free-thinking flame in my subconscious is, I went on YouTube one day and searched for things that would take my religious knowledge to a whole other platform of reality, so that I would know people’s common arguments about the Bible, and how to defend them, it’s called “Christian apologetics.” Eventually, I came to this like two-hour debate with Christopher Hitchens defending atheism and why “God is not great.”, I believe that is the title of his book, “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.” The concepts he brings to the table, and the depth of study he does on the bible is astounding!
By the time I locked my phone it changed my life in such a way I cannot describe. If you're getting the idea that I’m just simply a brainwashed follower of this individual, and that I'm “Just too young,” to make decisions like this, then what about the kids who are “children of Christ”? They never get told both sides of the story, depriving them of what they ultimately are entitled to know. Believe me I spent many hours pondering if I should become Agnostic. I remember being in the parking lot of Kroger, waiting on my grandma to come out thinking to myself, “Am I really going to do this? What if I’m wrong and burn in a fiery pit of damnation forever? What if grandma finds out? What will she think?”, a sick feeling swamped my stomach while adrenaline was pumping rapidly through my veins. It's a very.. odd feeling leaving your religion, is not any easy thing at first because you've thought it to be truth basically your whole and until now your just going to throw it all away? I decided that being an Atheist for me, is like growing up; you put things in rational frame of understanding and realize..this is real..it's much like when your pet, or family member passes you have that sudden moment of realization. You realize how much time you wasted worrying about sin and not enough time living -- that's how it was for me
anyways.

I think this decision impacted my life in a very positive way; I no longer have to worry about..being God’s cheerleader. I don’t have anxiety-filled nights keeping me up or have to constantly look up on christian websites if this is okay for me to do or if this is a sin; no more do I live in the muck of religion. I’m tired of fairytales raping minds of creativity, and getting in the way of freedom.