I've been an Atheist for as long as I can remember. Both of my parents are agnostic, and all of my extended relatives are (albeit alcoholics and druggies) rediculously Christian. I have always known that I am not a Christian, but I wasn't sure why I was actually Atheist.
Ana sent me a letter in December and I just read it. She was feeling very morally conflicted that day, because between divorcing parents, druggie friends, and a weed-growing boyfriend, she wasn't sure what was right and wrong. I was replying to her letter when I realized why I am, in fact, not a Christian... because coincedentally, Christianity as a guiding principle is a little bit ludicrous, the way that I see it.

Part of me really wants to be Christian, or at least religious. Life would be so, so much easier if I knew that all of my choices were not in vain, and that I do, in fact, have something legitimate to look forward to. At the same time, that absolutely does not make it true! I also realize that everyone that I know who is religious at all has a much lower level of wisdom, or intelligence in the global, realistic sense. Coincedence? Maybe.

This next bit is a quote from Ana's letter that I don't feel like rewording and directing at you guys. If you want to hear it for you, reword it.

Blindly following a strict set of rules is idiocy. Part of me thinks that there can’t even really be a “right” and a “wrong”. Those categories just seem way too broad to truly mean anything. It would make so much more sense if during the decision making process, instead of thinking right versus wrong and WWJD?, if people thought about whether or not it was good or bad for them as an individual, or bad for them as part of a society. Doesn’t that make sense? So if you go and smoke weed a few times and go out with a druggie, it’s not “wrong” because (unless you get addicted) it’ll just you being open to the culture that you’re in. And going out with someone amazing definitely isn’t “wrong” just because he’s a druggie. It’s absolutely right because I bet you two are great together.

I think I'll end this with a few quotes from the book we're reading in English, Black Boy. They relate, at least a little bit, and they all really stuck with me when I read them..

"We all must die someday, so why be afraid?"
"If laying down my life could stop the suffering in the world, I'd do it. But I don't believe anything can stop it."
"His strength shall be hunger bitten, and his destruction shall be ready at his side."

That last one is actually a quote in the beginning of the book; it's from Job.