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How
Atheism has Affected My Life
by Jeremy Salow (thebund@att.net;
www.bunda.org)
Written
for a college essay; a response to: “Evaluate a significant experience,
achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its
impact on you.”
A significant experience that has had the most impact on my life is actually a
collection of experiences, my involvement in the secular movement.
From birth I was raised in a reformed Jewish household in a mostly Jewish
community. As any normal child I questioned what I was told, both in regular and
religious life. Children of that age usually don't get straight answers in
either case, so the responses (or lack of) that I was given didn't bother me too
much. Whether on the birds and the bees or how Noah could possibly fit every
animal on Earth in one boat, the uncertainties were fleeting. For the most part
I believed everything my elders told me.
As I matured I learned to question more and not accept everything at face value.
The gears of mental growth were in progress. I wouldn't accept an explanation
that didn't make sense to me. Religion made less and less sense, even the
extremely liberal reformed movement. After having my Bar Mitzvah and attending
later Jewish education I couldn't take it any more. The more I progressed the
more I wanted to get out. The concept of a god was no longer one that I held. As
a result, religion went out as well.
I felt as if a five hundred pound weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. I
was now totally free to explore my greatest passion, science. The conflict
between religion and science was too great before. I didn't have to contradict
myself by believing both anymore. I went out and found a whole secular
community, which I didn’t know, existed. I found that this community of logic
and reason was perfectly fit for me. Science is its main tool!
With the help from other atheists all over the world that I received through the
internet, organizations, magazines, and other resources I was able to learn much
more than I ever have before about history, science, and almost everything else
from a more objective point of view than I ever got from my Rabbi or religious
school teachers.
The people I have met and the information that I have assimilated forever change
me. I have learned that nothing is more important than a rational mind, free of
the bonds of superstition. I will continue through my education to cultivate my
mind to be open to new ideas, yet still skeptical to ideas, which are not
supported by fact. I now know how I want to live my life, and what kind of
person I want to be.
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