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Around the same time, I began to question religion. I was never quite brought up in a religious family background: my parents supposedly practice a religion, but they are really not that religious. However, where I grew up (in America), I was surrounded by Christians. I remember a time when I was in middle school that I was jealous of my peers who went to church. It sounded like they had a lot of fun, and I wanted to go (though I never did). I ended up believing that there was a God, and that somehow I could pray and hope things would get better. However, after some questioning and re-evaluation, I decided that this so-called God did not exist. This also happened around my junior year of high school. I became agnostic: unsure of just what exactly exists in terms of religion.

The senior year of high school, my AP Literature teacher required us to write a religion paper. We got to choose which religion we wanted to do, and I chose Daoism. In hindsight, I’d say that the writing of this paper was what really solidified the atheist views I have today. Here are some excerpts from my paper that could be more telling of just what my views are — read them here.

So, I am now an atheist with such views (in a too-simplified list):

• I believe there is no God, and there is no higher power.
• I am not spiritual.
• I view myself the equivalent to a Christian viewing God: I don’t pray in hopes that something will get better. Instead, I actively seek to change what I believe I’m doing wrong, and in the process become a better person.
• I do not believe in an afterlife, nor a Heaven/Hell.
• I believe that after we die, we do just become dirt in the ground (or ashes in an urn), and I am okay with that.