By Lynnsey McGraw–
Meet Chelsea Stanton. I met her standing at a booth for Student Secular Alliance, also known as the SSA, in front of the Humanities building. She is a transfer student from Northern Kentucky University starting her sophomore year here at the University of Louisville. She identifies herself as an atheist.
Has Stanton always been an atheist?
“No,” she says, “I used to consider myself a Christian. I was raised in a non-denominational church.” Stanton goes on, “My mom and grandma are very religious, and so I did grow up in a very religious house.” To this day, she says they are still very religious and quote the Bible.
But how do they feel with her being an atheist?
“They are not comfortable with me being an atheist, but I did my own research and I realized I didn’t really like my religion. I was like this stuff doesn’t make sense in the Bible, that’s not how I felt people should live.” Stanton says, “I got in to more in depth science classes realizing that there isn’t a need for a God. There doesn’t need to be a creator of the Universe when you have science, and nature that is beautiful and wonderful as it is.”
Stanton continued, “When I first came out as an atheist, my family was very against it. A lot of them still don’t talk to me, or they are not as nice to me as they used to be.” Going on she says, “The biggest thing was the Christmas that I came out, no one got me anything because they were like, oh well we didn’t think you celebrated Christmas anymore because you don’t believe in Jesus.”
But Stanton feels that Christmas is more of a cultural tradition. Nevertheless, she states, “That was pretty hard for me to go through.”
Does being an atheist affect her academic life on campus?
Stanton says, “Honestly, I don’t think being an atheist affects my schooling.” Continuing she says, “I would say the Secular Student Alliance, really affected me this year; I have never really been in a group like this before.” Stanton states, “I am not against people that have religion, because I was religious and I understand it.”
Stanton is a member of the SSA. She says, “I have a community of people that think like I do and it’s cool because I have never been involved with that before. It was cool to meet them.”
