I Didn't Raise an Atheist

"That's a very aggressive title. What's up?" 

Those were my father's exact words to me one day. I'm not mad about it; I'm not even complaining that he said it, but it always stood out to me. Unlike most of my friends,  I felt alienated by the church. I don't know if it was the hypocritical teen "leaders" who refused to practice what they preached or the priest's inability to instill the word of God into me; I wouldn't be able to tell you if I tried. The church even had us go to Catechism classes to ensure that our faith in God waas strong at a young age. Obviously that didn't work for me. Confirmation was supposed to be where teenagers, like me, would come to learn about God and confirm our Catholicism and our faith in God, but how did they expect me to listen to the "leaders" that would preach the word of God on Thursday and sin so much on Friday that Saturday was used to remember what happened on Friday? 

Everyone always told me, "God has a plan; you just need to be patient." I guess I just got sick of being patient and helpless. Why him? Why her? Why me? Every time something happened I was hit with, "Everything is all part of God's plan." I'm not saying God's plan sucks, sometimes I just wonder why some things have to be the way they are and how it could have been different. I guess you could say I'm a skeptic. Following the death of her Uncle Anoosh, Marjane lashed out at the first thing she could: God. How could a merciful God allow such turmoil to take over her home and her family? 

She went from wanting to be a prophet to dismissing God. One of the presenters today said, "people can only believe in something if it is their choice." Religion can only work if you want to believe what you are being told; the more it is forced upon you, the less it will work. Sometimes we go through things in our life that leave us needing something to believe in leading us right into the welcoming arms of the Lord. Other times, we go through obstacles that make us question everything around us, even the beliefs we hold most dear. We may go through things that push us to religion or we may go through things that push us away from religion, but, no matter who you are, it can happen to the best of us.