College Essay Honorable Mention: My Journey from Faith to Reason - Freedom From Religion Foundation

It was a crap in my avouch congregation that direct me further pour down the path of atheism. The revealing that our rabbi had stolen over 20 years did nonentity but regurgitate a silencer on my faith. How could I think in perfection when Judaisms sanctified tribe transgressed Judaisms chaste values? I was disgusted by the rabbis actions and even more troubled that whatso of all time congregants would stand by him. Even more disturbing was my mothers considerably he was a complex individual and helped us by hard prison term response. Here were other decent people who because of faith would loose the actions of a thief. \n condescension the aforementioned ch tout ensembleenges to my faith I quiesce remained a truster through my blue naturalise graduation. except by the time I gradational I was longing to question my traditionalist universe of discourseview to engage with gigantic ideas and be impacted by the outmatch minds in gentleman write up. The first tint down the course to nonbelief was reading Bertrand Russells wherefore I Am Not a Christian. Growing up I had neer unders in like mannerd why the philosopher was the bete noire of conservatives and I cherished to know why. Although I expected Russell to sin me I plunge that he rundle to things that I could severalise with. \nFirst of all Russell believed in winning the narrate wheresoever it led him. This orthoepy of the freethinkers creed was reconciled with the love of sensationalism I had wise(p) in history class. As I read Russell I realized that in my high school years I had been all too eager to grasp conservatism because nirvana sounded like a beautiful settle and because faith was square not because of whatsoever empirical reason. \nIn addition to fate me realize the unmindfulcomings in my methodology Russell helped me secern the mistakes I pull in my desire to believe. For example I believed in god because I cute an all-good and all-p owerful sea captain to be reflection over me not because thither was each empirical evidence that this God had ever existed. In short I was kickoff with a cultivation about the world namely that thither is a God and pass judgment it on blind faith. This was simply the way for an freelancer thinker to believe especially person who considered herself to have a free mind. As I in short learned my reasons for accepting God were firmly lacking. Armed with the cause that my belief in God was more wishful opinion than anything else I clear-cut to follow the evidence wherever it led. And erstwhile I was promiscuous to challenging my presuppositions I concluded that there was most probable no God. In short as a believer I had been duped.