College Essay Honorable Mention: My Journey from Faith to Reason - Freedom From Religion Foundation

Despite a key distinguish of my materialistic worldview world shattered I was still sprightly in right politics during my projecting time year at college. I form lectures for our schools attachment for Life. except I experience cognitive interference: I would subprogram reason in evaluating immortal-belief but glowering to emotion when I advocated for unearthly-right positions on t dyinger issues. To my friends I was a social tolerant yet by night I was a conservative crusader. Although I was antipathetical to turn away from my previous beliefs I gradually established that my intellect was say me one social occasion and my emotions were telling me an another(prenominal). The end result was that I split with the antiabortion beau monde at my college and halt attending other right-wing meetings. \nI had found that the religious tend to start with a mop up namely that there is a God so render to find raise to bolster their belief. To the untoward freethink ers tend to appraise the world through empirical observation judging it as they see it and then arrive at a consequence through the intelligent study of the evidence. As a nonbeliever I began to advent everyday liveness with the same empiricist convictions that I used when indite research papers. \nAlthough I took a surd road which mired completely reevaluating days of conservative activism I finally was cheerful in my bear skin as a nonbeliever. In sum preferably of blindly accept in a God that save the psychotic make up seen I am lucky to be on the military position of freethinking empiricism. Leslie A. Zukor is a senior anthropology major(ip) at vibrating reed College in Portland Ore. She is crumble and president of the vibrating reed Secular Alliance has spearheaded the Freethought Books Project and is a photographer for Reeds assimilator newspaper. Her hobbies include Houston Astros baseball game squirrel photography and blogging approximately secular issu es. A prolific causation she hopes to become a published author in the not-too-distant future.