I'll put this out here right now so there's no confusion: I am atheist. No, I do not "hate" Christianity or any other religion, I just feel it's not for me. I will not try to persuade you that God does not exist, so don't try to persuade me that he does. This is one the biggest things that upsets me. Many Christians(not all- I won't stereo-type and this is not a hate speech) try to "save" or "recruit" people. Basically, shoving their religion on them. It really bugs me because especially here, in America, are we not guaranteed to freedom of religion? Is the first amendment just a lie? Last time I checked, here in the States, you can belong to and practice any religion you want, or like me, have lack there of.

There's this really religious guy who goes to my school right? Okay, there's nothing wrong with the fact that he "found" Jesus and it's supposedly made his life better, but the kid goes around talking about Christianity to everyone, even people he knows that don't want to hear it. He actually tells people that they will go to Hell for not believing in God and accepting Christ as our "savior". He even tells other Christians that don't belong to the same category of Christianity he does(i.e., Baptist, Catholic, Protestant, etc.) that they too are going to Hell.
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Do you know how stupid that is? That is bullshit right there.

Okay, so if I'm correct, the way it goes is, if you are a good person, and just nice in general and do good things, you'll go to Heaven, but if you're bad and mean, you'll end up in Hell in the end. It has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in God or not, right? I mean, if there is a God, I'm sure he'd forgive me and let me into Heaven, if I was a good enough person, whether I doubted his existence or not. After all, isn't that what Christianity is all about? Forgiveness.

I mean, elaborating on that point, I know some atheists who are really nice people. As well as Christian, and Hindu, and Jewish, and what-have-you. They don't all believe the same thing, but they're all great people, who don't judge me for not thinking entirely the same way they do. I don't judge them, or turn them off when they start to talk about their religion. Now, I also know some other people who aren't the greatest, that one kid included. He's generally nice to people, until he finds out they think differently than him, and that ends up with him telling them they'll burn in Hell if they don't take Jesus in now. And, a lot of people are like that, unfortunately. I've never down-talked someone's religion/beliefs, but I have down-talked they way that person behaves. I think it's un-fair to be discriminated against as an Atheist or any religion, for that manner. Not only because we are allowed the choice of freedom of religion, but it's also just fucking rude.

I mean, I think it's wonderful that someone may have been say, suicidal, and found Christianity, thus turning their life around for the better. Same goes for every other religion. But, some people don't want to be helped, or want to get by on their own. You can only help someone so much. It gets to the point where it's just rude and your forcing religion upon someone. I don't go around stating all the things that could disprove God, so don't tell me about Jesus if I don't want to hear about him. Also, (again- not stereo-typing)I've noticed it's mainly Christians themselves going around "spreading the word of Christ". A lot of modern Christians have made the entire religion look bad, and even caused Atheists today, to actually turn Atheist. And you know, I've also noticed that these certain Christians behaving this way are majority American. Many Americans have shoved things down people's throats(figuratively) including religion, and you know what? That's a big reason half the world hates us. Because some Americans give the rest of us a bad image. Do you see a resemblance between this and the Christians?

Another topic I wanted to address: Fundamentalist Christians(Christians who believe every word of the Bible is true). Okay. The Bible was written by people(also, a while back, so you can infer the general understanding of things back then was low), so it's not perfect. The stories in the Bible are just little stories with morals, told to send a message, or for you to take advice from. No, we're not supposed to believe everything in it, but rather take the lessons from it, like, be good to your neighbor, don't cheat on your wife, etc. The Bible would be an even greater thing if people didn't "read to much into it" and rather take the moral of the story and live by it, instead of the story itself.

Okay, that pretty much wraps up my rant on religion. This is not intended to offend people, stereo-type Christians, or be a hate speech. I am just practicing my right to free speech, and I should be allowed to that, as well as my religious views, because you know what? I'm an American citizen, thus allowed the rights supported in the Constitution. The sad thing about this country though, I'm starting to feel all those rights are being slipped away, just becoming a figment of our imagination and they really don't exist. We should be worrying more about the non-existence of our rights whether than that of any god.

_Camille