Posted on 03/22/2014 5:46:52 PM PDT by Diago
While I had doubts about the existence of God before entering college, I considered myself a Christian and checked off the Protestant Methodist box on my application. Still, I had some apprehension in attending Boston College—a religious, Jesuit, Catholic institution. So, it came much to my surprise that nearly as soon as I stepped on campus, my faith in Christianity and God started to wane.
I took both sections of Philosophy of the Person my first year at BC, not because I was interested in the subject, but solely as a means to fulfill the Core curriculum that’s a major part of BC’s Jesuit identity. I hadn’t previously taken a philosophy course, though I quickly came to enjoy the deep and abstract thinking required of the class as a contrast to the quantitative work present in my economics and finance courses.
We read a number of proofs for the existence of God, and as any good intro philosophy class allows, we examined each side of the argument. After both class discussions and my own thinking, I realized I sided more with arguments against God. I recall writing an essay disputing St. Thomas Aquinas’ five proofs of existence, my finishing line reading, “Couldn’t God have left more compelling evidence [for his existence]?” Little did I know this marked an important turning point in my educational journey—it was the first time I seriously considered the distinct possibility that God didn’t exist.
These thoughts continued during a two-semester Religious Quest class my sophomore year that compared Islam and Christianity. It was my first exposure to Islam besides what I’d seen and read in the news, and I also learned extensively about Christianity. Never before had I gained such a detailed perspective on the origins, sects, and traditions of the two religions. The power of community provided by each faith throughout history was immense, and based on their shared teachings of peace and worship, it was easy to see why each has thrived and accumulated millions of members worldwide.
A major point of the class was how similar the religions are, and indeed, they are more similar than I’d have ever thought. But by examining them so closely, I also studied their many differences. And those differences, most historians agree, have contributed to millions of deaths around the world—not only between the two religions (The Crusades), but also due to intra-religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants (30 Years’ War) and Sunni and Shiite Muslims (Iran vs. Saudi Arabia & Iraq).
After a great deal of reflection undertaken both as a requirement inside the classroom and on my own, I came away with two conclusions. One, no higher being would ever tolerate millions of people being killed over the right way to worship him. Two, the differences between each religion made it unlikely that followers of both could be accepted into the same afterlife, meaning that, if there were a God, millions would be left out of eternal life—in my view, an unjust punishment for having the “wrong” belief.
Due to those two required core classes, by the second half of my sophomore year I had enough qualitative reasons for not believing in God. A class I took the following semester supplied me with more technical explanations. I enrolled in evolutionary economics, a course that discussed how humans have developed certain traits through evolution. Evolutionary psychologists believe that sexual selection and preference has shaped much of how we behave today, explaining behaviors such as riskier tendencies in men compared to women, outward displays of fitness to attract mates, and, ultimately, the development of a creative and intelligent human mind.
As one can imagine, the class required intensive reflection on views of human behavior that we’d previously considered to be quite basic. We also expanded our knowledge by reading a number of evolutionary passages, including a section from Richard Dawkins’ book, The Selfish Gene (emphasis on gene). His work, in addition to meticulously explaining how natural selection works down to the genetic level, offered a solid explanation of how life began without a creator.
By the end of the semester, I fully believed evolution as a fact for the first time. Further, as someone who finds the existence of God and evolution mutually exclusive, it was much harder for me to identify with the Christian faith. But I was not yet committed to saying I didn’t believe in God.
That changed the next semester, the first of my junior year. I registered for Philosophy of Existence to fulfill my minor in the subject—a route I would never have pursued had I gone to a different school. We studied a number of existentialist philosophers, some who based their philosophies in religion, and others who didn’t. Two of the latter were Sartre and Nietzsche, known atheist scholars. Sartre wrote that the essence of being human is being free, while Nietzsche famously said, “God is dead … and we have killed him.” They both provided a view of the world in which mankind had created the notion of God.
By the end of the class, and after deep contemplation, I finally realized what I truly believed—there is no God. Both the idea of a higher being, and the many religions of the world, were founded by man to inspire hope and influence human behavior.
Despite entering college as a Christian, two months from now I will graduate this Jesuit, Catholic school as an atheist. Ironically, the basis of that belief was developed in classes I was required to take based on Jesuit values and ideals —the education of the whole person through BC’s core curriculum. The Jesuits don’t teach students what to think. They teach them how to think. Above all else, that’s what college is for. And I’m grateful that I chose BC as the place to learn that.
Editor’s Note: The views presented in this column are those of the author alone and do not represent the views of The Heights.
I think that nun taught at my Jesuit University as well or we had a follower of her:)
She would not let anyone refer to God as He or Him etc. She spent most of the course teaching about Mary Magdalene and how she was the chief disciple. Bizarro world.
Indeed padre. I had my Jesuit University experience. Can’t complain about the quality of the education in my major areas but the mandatory theology, philosophy etc. electives were hard to bear for this Christian conservative. I have to say it made for great debates in lectures.
If an atheist, agnostic or seeker enters a Christian university they should leave it with at least the Gospel of Jesus Christ presented clearly and convincingly. This guy got the 180 of that. Instead he received the instruction manual for the synagogue of Satan.
>>They are easy picking for crafty, liberal, atheist, institutional professors.<<
Why do so many of the above take up residence in Catholic universities?
I agree on your point about lack of apologetics skills. One only has to go over to the Catholic Answers site to see such.
Atheists are idiots.
Good find:) I guess he skipped that class to sleep in.
The fool hath said in his heart, “There is no God.” He doesn’t know enough yet to look for more evidence. He is stumbling over things that lead children to believe in the existance of God. Where did I come from? There had to be a starting point. Something cannot come from nothing. Intricate designs call for a thoughtful Creator. He is stumbling over obvious truths and swallowing convoluted lies...a dangerous thing to do. The cost: His eternal soul. Better to take a second look.
Another egoist who thinks God should reveal himself personally as. Burning bush. God is more subtle This dope never recognized a “God wink”
It is not important whether this self satisfied clown believes in God; rather it is whether God believes in him
And the irony of it is, if he spends some time as an atheist, then decides to do some real research to disprove God’s existence, he is likely to come to the conclusion that God exists....
C.S.Lewis writes a story like that in his memoirs of his time at Oxford in the 1920s.
Not all. I have one headed to seminary. And the other will soon graduate a Jesuit institution with her (protestant) faith intact. It depends on how well grounded they are when they go off to college.....
We read a number of proofs for the existence of God, and as any good intro philosophy class allows, we examined each side of the argument. After both class discussions and my own thinking, I realized I sided more with arguments against God. I recall writing an essay disputing St. Thomas Aquinas’ five proofs of existencePeter Kreeft is on the faculty at BC, and I've heard him say that the philosophy department is very good. OTOH, BC is also known as "barely Catholic," so the other departments may not be as good.
Anyway, it appears that the student has made his choice, a choice not uncommon among young people. But most grow out of it.
I've noticed that myself. I was listening to a recent episode of Catholic Answers entilted, "Why are you an atheist?" The callers are almost always hostile, cranky, belligerent and prideful, but Trent Horn, the apologist, is remarkably patient.
The first caller claimed that "scientists have studied the universe and math and haven't found any evidence of God. What do you say about that!"
Where do you begin?
The apologists first had to explain the nature of God, that God isn't "out there" in some part of the universe.
It's not uncommon for atheist callers to say that Christians believe God to be an old man sitting in the clouds.
My kids were warned by some misguided but well meaning Christians to NOT go to secular colleges because they would *lose their faith*.
And yet they did go to big name secular universities and came out, faith intact in spite of some of their professors efforts.
But they went in knowing who they were in Christ and what they believed.
“His “reasons” for not believing in God are pathetic.”
What are good reasons to not believe in a God?
Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc. What religious crusade were they on?
What a load! HE made himself an atheist. He blames ANYONE or ANYTHING else? I went to U.C. Berkeley and did not become an atheist. WHAT a cop-out.
Student is delusional, weak and stupid.
Those were my thoughts exactly. It’s good the Catholic Church is so undivided isn’t it? This pope fits end time prophecy very well.
Going to a Catholic university leaves a person convinced there is no God? How interesting.
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