Will a World Religions class shake the faith of teenagers today? Religion is a controversial issue today amongst all due to the abundance of worldviews and the unfortunate reality of relative truth. In my high school, Providence St. Mel,  all sophomores are required to take World Religions. An in class activity in this course enticed me to my classmate, Justin Austin’s beliefs. Justin is a fifteen year old sophomore who is the only Atheist in his family. He stands strongly on his beliefs and that is evident in his assertive and firm tone.
How has World Religions affected you?
         “World Religions has allowed me to learn more about the other religions in the world, as I was uninformed about the beliefs and cultures of those religions.”
Can you see yourself converting back to your previous religion? Why or why not.
“I can’t see myself converting back to Christianity unless some truly compelling evidence was presented that showed it actually was true  So far this has not been the case.”
How has family affected your religion?
         “Initially, I was a Christian because of my family. I switched to Atheism on my own, resulting in the unawareness of the family for quite some time. My family exhibited blind faith in church and can possibly be the reason for pushing me away from Christianity.”
Have you ever considered changing your religion? Explain and if so, to what?
“I considered converting back to Christianity when I switched to Atheism. I first began questioning Christianity when we read Night in 8th grade. It seemed to me that there was no way a benevolent God could allow such horrors to occur to an entire group of faithful people. I spent some time looking into both sides, and it was clear to me which one had more evidence. Since then, I haven’t wanted to change religions.”
Describe God as you understand him.
         “God is an entity that is supposed to have created the universe, be all knowing, and be all powerful.  He is a trinity, and consists of Jesus,the father, and the holy ghost.”
What question would you ask God?
“Why would you create a world with so much suffering in it, while still asking your followers to continue to believe in you based on an ancient text with no evidence supporting its validity?”
Tell of a time you’ve felt close to God.
         “I decided to go on a 3 day canoe trip at camp in Wisconsin. On the second day, we camped out on a small island. A tornado passed extremely close to our camp site with strong winds able to knock down a massive tree near us. Residents near us came to our rescue and I thanked God for bringing us out safely, but now I feel as though God had no role in our survival.”
How could you abruptly change from believing in God to there being no God? Why not transfer to something like Agnosticism?
         “The abruptness of the change wasn’t a factor in my decision making. I just stay on the side supported more thoroughly. I would not be agnostic because it is indecisive. As an agnostic atheist, I believe that there probably is no god, but I am not claiming the nonexistence.”
When did the change happen? Explain your thoughts and emotions during the process.
         “Even though I identified as Christian, I wasn’t a very religious person. At some point, I doubted some aspects of Christianity, but shook it off. While reading Night in eighth grade, I was triggered to question the benevolence of God. I thought “How could a god call himself good if he is willing to let so many faithful people die?”  This made me being to research evidence for his existence.  I had never even thought about the possibility that he might not exist until that point.  I realized then that Christianity conflicted with many accepted scientific theories and such as evolution, the big bang theory, and the laws of physics.  Because of this, I made the switch to Atheism.”
What do you mean by “ your family members exhibit “blind faith”?
“I mean that they are believing without really questioning their beliefs.  The more religious people of my family tend to buy into the televangelists such as Peter Popoff that have been proven fraudulent multiple times without even questioning whether they are making the right choice, they simply believe because they were told by the bible/pastor/god.”
Going back to the time you felt close to God, you said that you feel  as though God didn’t bring you out, the people that helped you survive did. Daily activities such as waking up this morning and  having the activity of your limbs, who do you think grants you those things?
         “I think nobody gives me things such as being able to wake up and live  We evolved over billions of years, and now we exist as we are today.  We can move and wake up because that is what we evolved to do in order to survive.  There is no realistic scenario I know of that a higher power is necessary for.  At the end of day even if there is a god he isn’t influencing the world in a noticeable way in my opinion.”
Justin Austin identifies as an agnostic atheist due to his belief in the absence of a god, but caution to not be oblivious to his ideology. Justin is the first Atheist that I know and have talked to.. I was surprised with his opinion on the role of God in his near death experience, making it hard for me to not incorporate my beliefs. Converting from Christianity to Atheism wasn’t easy due to temptation to convert back, but Justin stands firmly today as a believer in humans evolving to do things that others believe that God does. The theme of this interview was a lesson learned as well- the simplest activities in life can make us rethink important life decisions.