What being atheist taught me
Jamie Hampton
jhampto6@uwyo.edu
My parents split when I was a little over a year old. When my dad got remarried he started attending a Baptist church and we went every Sunday when I was visiting in the summer.
The whole family would file into a pew and proceed to get submerged in the gospel of church. It seemed like something that came so natural to everyone. I remember sitting there the summer of my fourth grade year and wondering when I would feel the way the people around me did. Spoiler alert: it never happened.
Later I learned that this would mean that I, ladies and gentlemen, would identify as an atheist. I would also take a class during my time at UW that would make it even clearer that I was an atheist.
With that being said, I completely support believing in whatever you want to; that’s one of the greatest things about America. However, in my personal experience I haven’t always received this level of acceptance toward my beliefs – or lack thereof.
As long as I can remember, anytime it was brought up that I wasn’t a believer, I was met with a slew of questions. The questions ranged anywhere from simply, “why?” to “you can’t really say, ‘bless you’ or ‘Merry Christmas’ can you?”
I have grown up in Wyoming, so I understand that these questions could easily surface. I mean, it’s not exactly commonplace for someone to identify as an atheist around here. Although, at a certain point, I have to say that the questions start to get a little ridiculous.
To answer these questions: in today’s world, does anyone actually say, “Merry Christmas” in a way that’s tied to Christianity? Christmas has become such a commercialized holiday that it’s almost rarer to find someone who associates the phrase “Merry Christmas” to the religion itself. Also, I say “bless you” when people sneeze because it is a common courtesy. I’m not trying to offend anyone or their religion.
I understand that struggles like this aren’t unique to atheists, but all questions aside, I think it is important to readdress the idea that people should be allowed to believe what they want to believe without being interrogated. To me, the bottom line in life is that it is most important to be a genuinely good person, which I strive to be every day of my life.
I have found during my time at UW that I have been exposed to many different people with completely different backgrounds than mine. For a while I wasn’t sure of myself and how confident I was in claiming to be an atheist. I had grown up around religious people and it seemed like I had been the only person who wasn’t religious. It wasn’t until I took Varieties of Nonbelief taught by Tyler Fall and Professor Downs that I completely understood what being atheist meant.
My freshman year I took Intro to Religion, also taught by Fall, in order to look into other religions than just Christianity. The knowledge I gained from both of those classes was amazing. It was an interesting experience taking a religion class while being a nonbeliever, and it is something that I would challenge everyone to try.
We all need to take the time to step back and look at one another’s views and truly try to understand where we’re all coming from. I found that expanding my horizons has greatly benefitted my life experience.
After being exposed to all of this I went from dreading the topic of religion to encouraging this kind of discussion. It is important for dialogue to be started and topics to be discussed if we want to grow as a community.
We are lucky enough to live in a town with a university that welcomes these discussions, we just need to take advantage of it. It is our job to take these taboo topics and explore them – you won’t regret it.
