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.”