I would credit my atheism to an excellent education. I have had the opportunity to have been taught by many excellent teachers and professors who passed down to me the ability to think critically, ask questions, and to complete wide research to find answers. While I am not a scientist, my education provided me with a background in the scientific method, and a basic understanding about how the sciences can explain our natural world, and sometimes what others may call the “unexplainable.”
Because I was not as gifted in the sciences / mathematics areas, I chose study literature and writing. I found that through literature, there is a great deal of information and as that contributed to my atheism. I believe my first foray in to questioning the existence of god came about after reading Greek mythology in the 6th grade. After learning about all the myriad gods, goddesses, titans, nymphs, monsters, and super-powered heroes the Greeks once believed in, that they used to explain their world, I thought it might not be a stretch that in modern times, “god” was used by humans to explain our modern world. The Greeks once believed the titan Helios pulled the sun around the earth on the back of his flying chariot, when we now know that the Earth actually revolves around the sun.
My English teacher introduced our class to “Elmer Gantry” and “Inherit the Wind” in our freshman year of high school. I learned about the hypocrisy of believers, and how people can twist the Bible to fit their own needs and agendas. I found this was not only the case in modern times, and in reading Voltaire, I discovered that hypocrisy and religion have been travelling hand in hand for centuries. I discovered that promoting belief in a god or gods was also a route to power of those that promote dogma.
In college, I was introduced to Freud, and psychology. By reading further into the subject matter, I became aware of why people have a need or desire to believe in god, an afterlife, angels, or a higher power, why they have a need to feel some connection to the world around them. It can be difficult for the human brain to accept “not knowing,” and god and religion try to comfort those “discomforting” thoughts and feelings. I found that religion was there to soothe and coddle those who feel uncomfortable with life’s most difficult questions.
I am truly grateful for having been exposed to great teachers, who in turn exposed me to new ideas. Not telling me which may to go, but arming me with a variety of viewpoints to help me choose my own direction. I continue to use my educational experience to find new questions, and new answers, some that confirm thoughts, and others that help me to answers questions that others have.
Jonathan Judd