Accounts of a Teenage Atheist

I [Heart] Mythology

2008-09-25T15:55:00.002-04:00

As a high school Senior, I am taking a one semester Mythology class for my English credit. My teacher is a bigot, but I give the man credit...he's almost certainly a Freethinker (i.e. Atheist or Agnostic). He is always talking about how it's ridiculous that people actually believe the Judeo-Christian mythologies, which are not supposed to be taken literally, while everyone clearly knows that the Greek myths are fiction. He also says things like, "Don't be ashamed to talk, everyone. How many of you were raised Catholic? Well, the idea of shame is not new to you."

I burst out laughing. Now I point out how futile it is to take myths literally solely due to tradition whenever possible.

Abstinence-Only Sex Ed=Bristol Palin

2008-09-02T22:07:00.002-04:00

Was anyone else here secretly glad to hear about Sarah Palin's daughter's unwanted teen pregnancy. I hope so, it will help me feel less guilty. I'm seventeen and a Senior in high school, like Bristol. But, luckily for me, I actually learned about condoms in sex ed. But seriously, I'm hoping that the really god-fearin' right-wingers will just not vote this election, since they obviously won't vote Obama.

I know the goal of abstinence-only sex ed is to prevent any and all sexual contact, but it's obviously not working. Preventing pregnancy and the spread of STI's is probably more important than preposterous religious convictions that brand birth control as immoral. But, then, the people who think that birth control is immoral probably aren't very bright. After all, they believe that an invisible man who lives in the sky cares about whether or not they want to procreate. Apparently deities can't just mind their own damned business.

A Small Victory in "Coming Out"

2008-08-26T12:22:00.002-04:00

Well, last night I enjoyed a small victory in the aggravating process of emerging from the religious closet. My mildly religious grandfather said that he doesn't blame me for my atheism because all religions say different things and it's impossible to tell who's right and who's wrong. This is encouraging. Also, he agreed that I should continue to donate blood and that I should become a bone marrow donor when I turn eighteen. Overall, I am happy with this progress.

Infant Dies Because of Religious Idiocy

2008-08-17T22:14:00.002-04:00

Here's yet another tragic story of a child being killed by religious nutjobs:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4511910.ece

I can't believe that some people are trying to excuse the mother in the death of this child, saying that she was "brainwashed." Um, she's 21, an adult who chose to join this religious group, and she's responsible for herself and her child. If she got sucked into the cult "hook, line, and sinker," that is her problem. Her child starved to death while legally under her care, and she played the main part in killing him. Her attorney claims that other people were "calling the shots," but we learned long ago from the Nuremberg War Crime trials after WWII that simply "following orders" is not a good enough excuse for committing murder. Nazis who killed Jews because others told them to still had to make a conscious decision to kill. If they refused, I am sure that they would have been punished, but that is still better than murdering innocent people for no reason. That child was killed and his mother could have stopped it. She could have called the police. She could have fled with the child. She should have laid down her life for that baby, and did not. Therefore, she is a murderer.

"Cadaver" Organ Donation

2008-08-17T18:32:00.003-04:00

The Catholic grandmother and I got into another tiff the other day, this time concerning organ donation. She looked utterly disgusted as she told me, "Dey take-a dem before you died!"

Um, yeah! If doctors removed your organs three days after your body has totally shut down, then the organs would have started to decay already. I tried to explain to granny dearest that organs are harvested after the brain has ceased to function, with the exception of the brain stem, but to no avail.

She had a canary when I told her that I chose to be an organ donor when I got my driver's license earlier this year. She had a cow when I told her that I wanted to join the Nation Bone Marrow Registry when I turn 18. But that's hardly surprising; she was angry when I chose to give blood back in May. It doesn't really matter, though, since I'll be eighteen in January and no one can exactly stop me.

I hate people like my grandmother. If anyone in our family needed blood tomorrow, as my late mother did so many times, my grandmother would expect it to be readily available. When my mother died waiting for a kidney, my grandmother was angry that one wasn't instantly available. You cannot walk the Earth and expect such things to be given to you for nothing. If no one contributed to blood banks, donated their organs, or gave their bone marrow, then none of these things would be available to those in need of them. One cannot take more than one can give.

This one made me laugh

2008-08-10T10:05:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the week without posts; I was in Washington, DC to look at colleges. More on that later.

Anyway, right before I left, I was browsing the interwebs and ran into this little gem of a quote from a particularly dimwitted fundie. View: "Atheists are so evil! I am glad that atheists don't rule any major countries in the world!" (That's after I fixed the grammar, so it's not verbatim.)

It's too bad, really; we atheists love to rule over things with our cute little scepters and crowns. And I love the lack of historical knowledge, since apparently Russia and China are not "major" countries. But don't tell them, it'll hurt their feelings. Which leads me to ask what exactly a "minor" country is. I propose that we impose a size restriction on all countries desiring to join the UN. That'll show 'em!

The Pope says I'm a Cardboard Box

2008-08-03T19:19:00.002-04:00

Yay! I am a cardboard box, according to www.insidecatholic.com! Screw trying to accomplish anything in life, I'm just a faceless, nameless baby incubator! View:

And people wonder why I'm not Catholic anymore.

Birth Control

2008-08-03T16:34:00.002-04:00

I'm pretty sure that most people think that the use of birth control is reasonable. You have to thump that bible pretty hard to actually think that some invisible man up in the sky should determine how many times sperm meets egg, even though you're the one determining how many times they'll have a chance to meet. Nevertheless, my grandma (I live with my grandparents, so this is an issue) thinks that birth control is immoral. Naturally, she also loathes abortion. Here's her English-challenged response to my statement that I intend to use birth control starting next year at college:

"You think e nice a say dis?"

Yeah, that statement is probably indicative of the intelligence level of anyone who actually thinks birth control is immoral. It's "not nice" to prevent yourself from having 10 kids if you don't want them? Well, I guess I'll just have to side with Eleanor Roosevelt and say that well-behaved women rarely make history.

Calculate your God Delusion Index

2008-08-02T23:58:00.002-04:00

Just so long as I'm perusing Youtube, I'll post this video by Edward Current. It's hilarious, and Edward is great; he has a bunch of satirical vids on Youtube. I know a few people who are, doubtless, "batshit crazy."

Ninety-Nine Balloons

2008-08-02T23:03:00.002-04:00

I was doing random medical research online (yeah, I'm a nerd), researching trisomy disorders, and I came across this video on youtube, 99 Balloons.

(I hope that embedded properly.)

In the video, a couple learns that they are expecting a child with Trisomy 18. A normal person has 23 pairs of chromosomes (coils of DNA, essentially), making 46 chromosomes in all. Their son, Eliot, has 47 chromosomes because he has 3 copies of chromosome pair number 18. This genetic abnormality is considered to be generally incompatible with life and very few children live more than a few days with it. Little Eliot lived for 99 days.

Although I admire the love and courage that the parents showed for their baby, I have to add this family to my list of religious nuts who pray for a miracle to heal a genetic abnormality that was literally decided at conception. Either Eliot's mother or father contributed an extra chromosome via sperm or egg, through no fault of their own. But, they obviously didn't understand this, and chose to carry the baby to term. They received the diagnosis at 30 weeks, so I guess it was a bit late for an abortion, not that they would get one. (That is why expectant mothers should get an amniocentesis during the fourth month!) And they took care of the poor child who had a feeding tube and an oxygen tank attached to him for three months. I'm sorry that he had to suffer.

Oh, now to my point: the parents claim that "the living God proclaim(ed) himself through this boy who never uttered a word." I'm not really sure what message they heard.

"Next time, get an amnio?"

"Selective abortion is wrong?"

They probably wanted to hear "every life is worth bringing into the world, because Jesus loves all the little children, animals, and molecules." While I certainly don't share those convictions, I admire their tenacity in taking care of their son, since he was past the age of viability.

My Family's View on Religion

2008-08-02T22:36:00.002-04:00

The whole Atheism v. Theism argument has come up a few times in several of our family discussions, and it has been determined that my zealous catholic family members generally hate atheism. Here's an excerpt from a recent conversation b/t my great and and me about a week ago: (mind you, she's 60, Catholic, and has a high school education)

[While cleaning out my old house for renting purposes]

Aunt M: Don't throw out your communion candle! They use those in church! They used [my son] Danny's when he got married.

Me: Well, I have no intention of getting married in the Catholic Church.

Aunt M: (stops what she's doing and gets all serious) Oh my god, what's wrong? Are you having a problem?

Me: The Catholic Church is sexist and hypocritical, and besides, I'm an atheist.

Aunt M: UGH! Don't EVER say that word in my presence! I hate atheists! You need to believe in something!!!

Me: I don't change myself to please other people. And I believe in the big Bang Theory and in Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

Aunt M: But you don't believe in good or evil? That's impossible!

Me: Well, I believe that some people choose to act good or bad, but-

Aunt M: SEE! Hah! I've got you! You're not really an atheist!

Yeah, my family's pretty frustrating. My grandparents, who are 71 and 80, also believe that one must believe in a deity (okay, the Xtian God + Jesus) to keep one going and to make life worthwhile. I've tried to tell them both subtly that it's really not necessary to believe in a higher power to be happy, but they don't believe me. My grandpa, Poppa, kind of listened to me and I'm pretty sure that he heard me when I said that I don't believe in any higher powers, and he didn't pitch a fit, so that's promising. My grandmother is another story. She goes to church every Sunday and thinks that I should "wanna go to church, learn...." and that I'm "no nice" because I don't go to church. Did I mention that my grandparents are old, Italian immigrants who are English challenged?

Background

2008-08-02T21:56:00.002-04:00

I guess that I should explain how I came to be an atheist in the first place. In retrospect, it was all very sudden and quite logical.

In February 2007, I was sitting in my Honors Biology class, learning about the origin of life. (That, along with the Theory of Evolution, was always my favorite subject in Science class, but I always felt guilty about believing in it because I was a Roman Catholic from a strict Italian family.) We learned about the Oparin-Haldane Thesis about the scientific origin of life, and then about the Urey-Miller Experiment. I realize that the U-M Experiment was not perfect, but its results are still logical: ammonia, water, methane, hydrogen, heat, and electricity combine in the atmosphere of early Earth and eventually lead to the formation of organic molecules. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks: there is no god. There's just no reason for one to exist. The formation of life and the universe make sense without a deity in place.

It took me a few weeks to get over the initial shock, since I had been very Catholic for 16 years. I only came out of the religious closet to close family members and friends a few months ago. My catholic mother is dead. My father and stepmother don't mind. My grandparents, whom I live with, don't know yet because they will pitch fits. My best friend doesn't love the idea because she thinks I'm too young to make such convictions, but she accepts it. Her ancestor introduced Christianity to China, so I can't blame her. My other friends are open to the idea as well, so I suppose that I've received support from most sides.

For Starters

2008-08-02T21:49:00.005-04:00

Welcome to my blog, Accounts of a Teenage Atheist. I started this blog after discovering that there are not many blogs by atheistic teens on the web, "Confessions of a Teen Atheist" and "Diary of a Teen Atheist" being the exceptions. But I don't agree with the views of the former, and the latter is not from the USA, so it's a little harder to relate.

Most of my posts will be about: religion, Catholicism, Christianity, Atheism, sexism, Separation of Church and State, and politics. I don't want to spew hate about religious people because, in my opinion, hate rarely solves anything. I will, however, discuss my opinions on religion. It is very possible that I will dislike several religions themselves, but I do not have an inherent dislike for the adherents of said religion. I ask you to please respect my scientific beliefs, because there is proof backing them up. Look carefully to be sure that the same can be said of your own convictions.