I Am An Atheist

It Started With A Cat

By: Karlievania

Written on July 21st, 2012

I had this cat named Simba (great original name, I know) and that cat was my best ******* friend in the whole world.He'd wait by the door for me to come home from school, sleep beside me at night, come to me when I cried. Simba made moving to a stupid hick town bearable. I had planned to kill myself when I was nine.I couldn't deal with the new town, the new social rules, the new kids who all hated me. I hated them too.I just wanted everything to be the way it was before I moved. Before I killed myself, Simba came into my room and jumped on me, and I looked at him and I realized he wanted to me stay and that he loved me.

Years later, Simba was hit by a car and he passed.I was devastated. I felt like I lost everything important to me.

Having been raised Christian, I asked my mom if Simba was going to heaven. I assumed he was, and that idea brought me a lot of comfort.I just wanted to kinda confirm it with my mom I guess.

She said (and I don't bear her any ill will, because I know she was being honest based on her beliefs, and I've always preferred honesty to a lie) that animals don't have hearts in the emotional sense, and they don't have souls.That was the end of my cat.

I couldn't go with a doctrine that said my cat, who I believed in my heart of hearts had a soul and a personality and unique consciousness, was nothing.That he was going to rot. Heaven wasn't heaven without Simba, and if he wasn't there, I didn't want to be there either.I renounced my faith that day at age 11.

By: Karlievania

Age: 18-21 , Female

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4 responses

Supernaturalfan

It wouldn't make much sense for a god to give souls to humans only, but not the other living things on the Earth, but what does make sense is religion is the result of humans evolving further than other animals and inventing gods because of fear of death and a need to believe in an after life.

I also grew up as a Christian, but thought that animals must have a soul, whether or not people believed animals had one or not. The main thing that caused me to lose my faith was realizing how flawed the deity was. It's narcissistic and hypocritical, which means it must either be man-made, or there really is an evil tyrant in control over the universe...

Possibility 2 is a lot scarier, than the possibility of the Christian god being man-made. Luckily there is no evidence to prove that the Christian god does exist, so it is safe to assume that it is man-made.

It sure is nice that you had a cat there to help you during the worst times of your life. Cats just have a special ability to cheer up anyone who is miserable.

Jul 21, 2012
3 likes
- Karlievania
  I don't believe in the souls or anything like that anymore. A few years after this I looked more into why God could or couldn't exist-Even if he did exist, he's a massive jerk.
  
  Jul 21, 2012
  1 like
Airion

I think animals aren't givin any credit what so ever. Studying animal behaviour it is obvious that like humans animals are sensitive to changes in mood just as we humans are to each other. Our body chemistry changes when we become stressed. Animals develop bonds with us. I mean look at dogs, a dog will stand by its owner, I often see a dogs love as the most unconditional, dogs don't expect anything in return for what they give and since the evolution of the human race dogs were our main source of protection and security. I imagine your cat was able to detect the stress you were going through, and was aiming to comfort you in some way. Many think that evolution is completely base science, no emotion but ethologist and psychologists recognize the evolution of emotion and personality (what is mistakenly called a soul). Yes your cat is gone but like a person they leave an imprint on your life, pets do have a 'soul' in the sense but they have unique likes, dislikes, and traits which make them unique.

Jul 21, 2012
2 likes
- Karlievania
  That's exactly it-animals don't get credit for anything and they should. I don't believe in souls anymore, but I find it so crazy when people say "it's just a cat" or "It doesn't have a personality".
  
  Jul 21, 2012
  1 like

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