My parents are both theists, but not terribly devout ones. As such, I was taught a skeletal version of Christianity as a child. I was told about God, Jesus, and a scattering of more well-known Bible stories, but I never actually read them. In fact, I don't even think that we had a Bible in the house during those early years. I was also taught those scientific theories that tend to get under most theists' skins. We didn't attend a church, and few of my friends who did talked about it, so I missed out on the bulk of the indoctrination that most theists get.

I became an atheist before I had ever heard the word, "atheist." By late elementary school, I had begun to learn of other, non- christian religions. My passion for astronomy had lead to an interest in the mythology from which the planets take their names. It occurred to me that these myths were a religion which no one seemed to believe any more. Why was that? I started to wonder just why I believed in the Christian God. All I had to go on was what my parents had told me, and a book written by some people I knew nothing about, who claimed that God was talking to them. By then, I knew that my parents were far from infallible, and that people who claim to hear God talking to them get committed to institutions. I couldn't base my entire world view on such flimsy testimony.

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