Teens and Atheism

In the spirit of the last book I read, Godless by Pete Hautman, I am going to write about atheism for this post. The word “atheism” can mean different things to different people, but it generally means the absence of belief that any god(s) exist. A survey conducted in 2012 tells us that about 2.4% of Americans are atheists, 3.3% are agnostic, and 13.9% don’t identify themselves with any religion. Those numbers are rising too.

In Godless, the main character, Jason, was an atheist because he did not believe in the existence of God, and he saw organized religion as an institution. Other atheists choose to be one because they believe that the evidence against the existence of God is more compelling than any evidence that there is a God. Some use the Problem of Evil as justification for their atheism. Every atheist has his or her own reasons for not believing in God.

Most atheists though, are under the age of thirty, and teenagers account for a large amount of that number. This may be because for some, atheism is a phase, although for most, this isn’t the case, and you should take a teen’s decision to become an atheist seriously and respect that decision. This also may be because atheism is becoming more acceptable in society and because education is being separated from the church.

Unfortunately though, a lot of people still aren’t open to accepting atheism completely. If a teen declares him/herself an atheist, their parents don’t react in an accepting way. They try to change the teen and in extreme cases, excommunicate them. It’s hard being an atheist in a world that believes in a god or gods. I am speaking from personal experience too.

When I decided I was an atheist around the time I was in middle school, my parents were obviously not happy with my decision. They accepted my decision to become an atheist, but they didn’t respect it. At family gatherings, I was mocked because I was the only atheist there. Sometimes my family would be talking about a miracle or a religious experience and my mother would say something like, “Oh wait…Paige can’t understand this because she’s an atheist.” The whole table would either burst out laughing or look at me pitifully. I immediately felt like an outsider in my own family.

Some have it worse than me though, and thankfully, I live in a time when atheism is acceptable in society. If you are a parent with a teen who has decided to become an atheist, the websites below say to respect their decision and ask them why—they might have a good reason. If their reason is they have become an atheist because they don’t like getting up early to go to church, THEN you can ask them to reconsider. Otherwise, let them be and ask them to respect your beliefs and you will respect theirs.

For teens and parents looking for resources, check out these websites:

http://www.kidswithoutgod.com/   

http://atheismforkidsandteens.com/en/