All the time I see how most people became atheists in their middle age. Me I started very early.

You see my early schooling it was all in Catholic schools. Not a bad way to go as the academic side was a bit more rigorous than the public schools. It’s just they tried to instill religion in all of us and I wasn’t buying it.

The whole idea of transubstantiation left me cold. Because someone says a few magic words over the crackers and wine it’s the body and blood of Christ? Way to go with ritual cannibalism.  That added to the holy trinity – how God, Jebus and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. That smacks of unadulterated bullshit there. But I made my first communion, and begrudgingly my confirmation.

You see by the time I’d made my confirmation it was the year after we studied the Bible in one of our religion classes. It’s where we learned of translation error, copy error, and the propensity of scribes to editorialize. It explained the parts of the Bible that seemed very contradictory. Boiled down, it’s mostly bullshit plain and simple. So much so that I stopped going to church. And of course a year or two earlier when my mom passed away – that fucking priest Father David – seeing my dad pick that priest up by the neck – well I knew then. It was all about the money.

So I stopped going to church cold. I felt it was better for me to sleep in on a Sunday than to get up early to go and hear the same useless platitudes. Now fast forward to the mid 1980’s. One day I’m driving down RI-15 (Mineral Spring Ave.) in North Providence and I see my dad’s name on the benefactors board. I asked my dad about it, a nice five figure sum was given to the church to annul his new wife’s former marriage. Again, all about the money.

And what I’ve learned about mankind – it’s all about the money everywhere. Even me – I demand a commensurate salary. There’s no going back.

Then of course I happened on a series on Netflix about the Borgia family. It was an interesting look at the popes – and their able assistants.

Then of course there are the Bishops and Cardinals who looked the other way while priests abused kids. Not only is this a serious detriment to their credibility but that those same Bishops and Cardinals looked the other way. For example, the current Bishop of Providence – he knew about a certain priest and stood by and did NOTHING. Not a damned thing. I wonder how he can sleep at night.

So now you know why I’m an atheist.