My parents are both Christians, so I started going to church as far back as I can remember. Some guest speaker at my former church's youth group one night gave a bunch of horror stories about people who committed the fabled unpardonable sin or otherwise rejecting God and dying "unsaved" not very long afterwards. I prayed to receive Christ and made my announcement public in church. I had done this once before some years ago, but doubted whether it was valid. Such doubts would plague me for years.

I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, though I was not diagnosed until after I had started college and suffered a severe bout with it. There are too many details about that experience to go into here probably, but around the time that I was diagnosed, I was finally prepared to do some research on whether Christianity could actually stand up to scrutiny. I was kind of hoping it couldn't at this point, actually, because of all that I had gone through. I saw no way of turning my life around under the conditions I was living and the requirements of my particular brand of Christian fundamentalism. God certainly seemed quiet. I did some research on the Internet and found that Christianity indeed could not stand up to scrutiny. It is too much like other religions and full of errors.

I am now an atheist, as I see no solid proof of the existence of any gods. I do not even need any deities in my life right now, though if any were so inclined to reveal themselves to me, they would find someone receptive to real, solid evidence, and not the sloppy apologetics I grew up with.

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