en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:55:03 GMT 15 By Ashley Shams
Born and raised with her own religious opinions, freshman Cailey Petrus is an open-minded atheist and believes she is entitled to her own opinions on religion. As a young girl, Cailey was influenced by her friends to attend church. When she first started going, everything seemed okay, but as she kept attending the services she soon realized the purpose of her attendance had turned into going for fun instead of going to hear the church sermons. She knew that wasn’t the right reasons to attend church and she soon stopped going. “I went to church on Sundays a couple times with my aunt when I was younger,” Cailey said. “I didn’t learn much because I thought it was really boring. When I got older I started going to church with my friends and sometimes felt moved by God, but then realized it wasn’t God; the pastor was just a really good speaker.” The stories the pastor would tell were of people going through hard times such as cancer, a death in the family or simply just stories about God moving people and putting their lives on the right path. That’s when she realized if people believe or want something strong enough, then their will power will make it true, not God. “I also believe that willpower is mistaken for God,” Cailey said. “I think when people pray, it’s really just that one person with all their thoughts wanting whatever it is they’re praying for bad enough, trying to make that thing happen.” She decided to look into religion herself one day and came across a satanic bible. She began to believe what the bible described, which is living life without worry of sins. Although she now views that to believe in a God one has to believe in a Satan, according to Cailey, no Satanist can say they don’t believe in God, because God and Satan go hand-in-hand. “I think that some gods in certain religions are selfish in a way,” Cailey said. “It’s not fair for people that don’t believe in God. Consider all of the other religions. If I don’t believe in them I’m going to hell. I think it’s selfish that He’s making people live their life for Him.” According to Cailey, everyone is entitled to their opinion and religion is good for a lot of people. She believes people find great comfort in believing in faith, having something to live for and being guided by something to live by. “I don’t believe in ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’, Cailey said. “I do believe in what some would consider a soul. When one dies, and they are spiritually in touch with their self, then they can still go on existing without their body. This might be what another would consider heaven or hell, everything depends on how one interprets it.” ]]> Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:04:00 GMT