Good Friday and Easter mean something different for me than many people. I grew up in a very Christian household. The name of blog correctly suggest I am no longer a practicing Christian. I am, in fact, a dedicated non-religious person. Which means I could be called an Apostate, rather than just Agnostic. While I am not an Atheist, I also do not believe in any of the mythology associated with any religion, Christian or otherwise.

Easter, of course, is the day that commemorates one of the most famous of miracles associated with Christianity, so it is always a time I reflect upon my years of freedom from the tenets of oppressive religious dogma. After all, religions are, if nothing else, a set of rules by which a person must abide to achieve salvation, enlightenment, or any other rewards associated with piety.

Need an example that religions create a sense of guilt and fear among their believers? Go to a church on Easter Sunday. Every church I ever went to as child and adolescent was packed full for every service on Easter, even if it had been deserted on a Sunday the previous month. People flock to churches on Easter to make up for the sin they perceive they’ve committed on the Sundays leading up to it: not going to church instills a sense of guilt that compels them to go at least once a year (maybe twice, on Christmas).

I realize that this is largely a reflection of the Christian population at large, not with Christianity itself. But the tradition of church non-attendance coupled with occasional guilt-driven attendance is one of many reasons I have long since parted ways with Christianity, and ultimately from believing in God.