Roy Chui, about atheism

Roy Chui of Sing.ah.pore speaks of his history, on how he turned from Christianity.

Excerpt :

"...

Perhaps, before I begin to broach on the subject, it is perhaps prudent for me to explain what atheism means to me, or to the majority of atheists out there (If there ever is such thing known as a atheist majority, that is). Atheism is a state of non-belief of any phenomenon, creatures, deities, demons, objects, and everything that cannot be validated by the basic tenets of science

Over the years I have had many religious friends coming forth to me, explaining their religious beliefs, and why it is dangerous, and sometimes immoral, not to have a basis of religious faith in my life. Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, they have all approached me, Christians especially, at some point of my life. No disrespect to them, I like the way I am now, well, maybe not entirely, but I have no need for a belief in a god above me which I can neither speak to nor hear from (Unless you are talking about a bad case of schizophrenia) to sustain my emotions. I am not an adrenaline junkie, for goodness sake!

Having said that, it would be terrible easy and high-handed for me to simply criticize them as simpletons, or label them as religious extremists. The truth is, most of them are simply sincere, ordinary folks, which makes it all the harder to refuse them, although eventually I did, and sometimes it does get a little too difficult for my liking.

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Back then, I was pretty much a curious little lad, and throughout the next four years I was constantly indoctrinated with fundamentalist beliefs. I was taught that God created Man, and that we were born sinners, and that if we did not repent from our sins, we shall be burned in hell for eternity. At that point of time, hell didn't seem so scary to me, I mean, I was only a kid, although I must say some of the new kids who came and went didn't react to well to it. I could see it in their faces, that they really dreaded hell. Not that I loved it, but at that point of time, I just couldn't be bothered.

...

The more I read, the more I couldn't reconcile the Baptist faith (Or any other faith for the matter), with my own logical mind. I could find no proof that God existed, neither could I prove God didn't exist either. But that logic applies to fairies, elves and what-nots too. Am I supposed to believe in elves, since I cannot prove they do not exist? ...

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