Student’s name

Professor

Course

Date

Is atheism wrong?

Introduction

Since I joined the university, I have had the challenge of understanding different phenomena daily. These issues included why some people kept criticizing the other, in this case, why atheists kept attacking believers and the reason as t why some believers also dared to criticize the atheists. I also had a question concerning the reason as to why many university students get into drug abuse and end up making their lives miserable. I have had many problems, and I have had my own opinions about them; however, I have always wanted to determine if what I still think about these questions was true. In his book Smith, “Becoming an atheist in America, Jesse M talks of how this process takes place, what aids people to become atheists. He also talks of how people can construct identity and meaning from the rejection of theism. (Jesse, 50).

Prior knowledge

From the moment I was born, my parents raised me as a Christian. I have always had the feeling that most people should be Christians and embrace Christianity. However, as I came to the university, that was not possible to be realized because the more I tried pulling my colleagues towards my way of life, the more they wanted to drift away and follow their self-chosen life paths. It was a challenging time because denying God was the worst thing that a person could ever do. However, I grew into it with time, adapting to the activities that I did not consider Godly before. I became more open-minded and started allowing people of every kind to live near me. I also developed an inquisitive nature whereby I could ask people how they can reject their God, who made them.

However, I consider myself lacking knowledge because, at one point, I came to realize that most people believe that Christianity is just a fallacy. I also started seeing from a distance how most people viewed religion. This was due to the many issues found within religion and its legitimacy in being the protector of human rights. I also realized from a distance how people feel when a minister has abused them, and the issue continues to be pushed, so protect the member of the clergy instead of giving justice to the party affected. I came to know that life is not fair, and most of the time, it is good to find solutions instead of complaining about it when challenges strike.

I had been brought up in a family whereby I was made to have a narrow mind and believe that it was only possible for a person to do good if they were connected with their maker, and this was one of the beliefs which were most opposed by many people in the information I collected. Therefore, the main issue I would love to discuss here is why religious people and atheists like talking evil of each other in some cases though not in all instances. According to (the church at home, 03), the decline of people attending church services continues to decrease in the United States of America.

Reason for topic choice

When I came to university, I have always wanted to interact with atheists and experience their views about religion and God, particularly with so many hospitals and schools. Therefore, before beginning my, I search, which will be about God and why different people believed differently and get real people’s views. I wanted to face and ask them fundamental questions about humanity and religion even though I was scared that they might not be in a position to make me feel welcome and the ideas to be created. I also wondered why evil existed if God was as good, and he was said to be (Thomas, 87).

I started keeping a journal and reviews about my daily experiences of myself first and the people I wanted to engage in the research because some of them were my classmates. I believed that studying them and allowing them to express themselves would give me a picture of the kind of people they were and how I should treat them to remain at peace. This is because I believe even if people are different, peace has to be maintained at all costs. On the 6th day of last month, I got into a small talk with an atheist, and my view was almost changing because, for the first time, I heard one of them speaking to me with so much kindness. I realized that I was the one who was wrong to judge people who were so lovely and embraced humanity.

From the moment I began informing myself that faith is reasonable, humanity is more important, and I decided to live by that statute. I also had another experience when I heard an atheist talking about Christians relatively and positively. This even made me believe that even though we are different human beings, we can correlate and live in harmony. It was on a television network whereby one of the atheists talked about how they do not have any religious issues. Instead, the only thing they believed is that beliefs are not essential or useful for humanity. The good about the program was how it was engaging the atheists and the non-atheists, and they were able to listen and learn a lot.

Story of the hunt

Even though this was not easy and especially at this time of corona, I could conduct a zoom meeting concerning the same issue. We discussed it with some of my friends. It was an excellent topic knowing that they also felt positivity towards atheists. They also stated that religion no longer rules the world. Still, rather religion is under the government. Therefore, people had the freedom to make their cookies, which should not be looked down upon by any other person or dismissed on its importance as long as the choice a person has made is not illegal. After this discussion and with an even more open mind, I got to interview several people. One of the interviewees was a stockman, and he informed me categorically, “Christians should stop feeling that the world belongs to them.”

The research about atheists was not easy because of the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, it was challenging to organize a forum, but I opted to do it online. I read through many websites, and the one reporting about why people choose atheism reported by the BBC was one of my favorites (https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/beliefs/reasons_1.shtml). This is because this one brings out the historical aspect of atheist movements and explains why some people would prefer being atheists than being Christians or generally being religious in any manner. I also read newspapers about the topic, and I talked to several others through the phone or video conference. Most of them were welcoming and very friendly.

The main question was what made a person decide to become an atheist, and this was a question that was not easy. At some point, I realized some people go through a lot of problems and issues in the hands’ religion until they reach a point of saying that if the so-called pastors behave in this manner, what should the laypeople do. And in this confusion, most of them leave the church with a lot of bitterness and anger, which is not easy to cool down.

Results of the search

It was not easy to search about atheism and mostly when I was already biased towards it. This made it one of the most significant challenges. However, with all these challenges, I was able to get a substantive amount of information and experience, which I believe will help me change my view to atheists entirely and help another person do the same because humanity is more important than just freedom and the ability for everyone to do what they think is right.

From some of the results obtained, I can conclude that most people do not concentrate on this issue about who is an atheist and who is not. Most people always want to be in the middle. Therefore, this becomes a significant problem when analyzing a person’s faith since it is not a scientific measurement. A person has to use mental capacity and observations for judgment about what a person believes in and what they think is the correct way of living. This statement can be viewed from many perspectives, and a person can conclude many things from it. Some possible conclusions would be that a substantial population is atheists, but they do not know. This is because they always try to think of other things when this topic comes up, and they are just affiliated with a religion and are not active members.

Another finding was that people valued more Christian values, which are also the values concerned with humanity more than the religious practices and beliefs. This is because people believe that it is easy for a person to practice these values more than praying and believing in Jesus Christ. This could be explained by the fact that most people won’t be useful in society but not go more in-depth into faith issues that they are not ready for. Most people are Christians, but they are not outspoken because of various problems. Thomas Starr King suggests and adopts the words of Jesus that Caesar should be given him and God his portion. He tried to bring to our attention that we need to separate church from politics, which has never fully happened till today. (Christianity and Humanity, 1877) Another finding was that people are the same, and despite what a person does, their dignity should never be taken away from them. This is very crucial.

Works cited

Chalfant, Eric. “Atheism in America.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. 2018.

Woods Jr, Thomas. How the catholic church built western civilization. Regnery Publishing, 2012.

Nelsen, Hart M. “Religious Transmission Versus Religious Formation: Preadolescent‐Parent Interaction.” Sociological Quarterly 21.2 (1980): 207-218., Hart M. “Religious Transmission Versus Religious Formation: Preadolescent‐Parent Interaction.” Sociological Quarterly 21.2 (1980): 207-218.

Eby, Charles Samuel. Christianity, and Humanity. Vol. 1. R. Meiklejohn & Company, 1883.

Li, Chien-hui. “A Union of Christianity, Humanity, and Philanthropy: The Christian Tradition and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Nineteenth-Century England.” Society & Animals 8.3 (2000): 265-285.

Izzo, Amanda. Liberal Christianity and Women’s Global Activism: The YWCA of the USA and the Maryknoll Sisters. Rutgers University Press, 2018.