I'd just like to share a story about how I started to analyze the world around me in a critical way. I started becoming aware of the stupidity of religious beliefs when I was around 8 years old. My mother started  taking me to church more and more and the boredom increased on every occasion. I remember practicing the pointless ritualistic forming of the cross on your head after touching the holly water, I remember performing the lords prayer and thinking about how stupid it sounded. I remember my aunt who is a nun  telling me about hell and how not praying could cause me to go there. Fortunately around the same to my best friend who's mother didn't care about church, would take us to the comic store and allow us to select two comics each and every weekend. I started forming a small collection, around the same time the heavy indoctrination started. My father wasn't around much because he was always working and I found it difficult to make sense of everything because I had my mom telling me it was true, and my dad telling me to just go to just please my mom. So while I had bible study I also read comics, I read the gospel of silver surfer and how he sacrificed himself to save his planet from galactus the devourer of worlds. Kind of reminded me of Jesus accept the story was much more intriguing and well written. Also Silver surfer didn't ask for anything in return, It was a genuine selfless act!! I became obsessed with comics and I couldn't stop reading, I would stay at my friends house and read for hours because his collection was much larger than mine. I started learning about things like alternate dimensions, super string theory, gamma radiation, and philosophy, all due to comic books. I read the fan letters to the comic writers about how Dr strange was a "deus ex machina," and how his immortality was a poor plot device.   My friend had a large encyclopedia collection and we started reading about all the things we saw in comics, like gamma rays, other dimensions etc. Now I've come to realize that I was actually 9 years old and doing scientific research. Even though I didn't understand the majority of it I was determined to read more until I did. I started asking my mom about all the scientific things I learned about in comics. I asked her if Jesus was more powerful than Galactus? I showed her the marvel card and asked her if there was a Jesus card I could compare stats with. Keep in mind this whole time my family (on my moms side) was really trying to indoctrinate me, the most important thing to them was always instilling the fear of hell in me! But I told them that Ghost Rider and Dr Strange had defeated Mephisto on various occasions and that if I where to arrive in hell I could probably defeat him!! I think back now and laugh at how funny that was, but at the time they didn't enjoy that I was reading comics and they told me to throw them away. Imagine telling a kid to throw away his comics because they aren't in accordance with religious dogma. After that a big argument broke out between my father and mother, although my dad didn't like comics either because they where fictional. He still believed they where works of art and he was happy I had also started drawing. My dad told me to take my comics to my friends house and not tell my mom, so I did and they stopped bothering me for a while.

I still had to put up with going to church, and I remember being so bored that by the end of mass I had counted to a 1000. Whenever I wanted to draw in church they wold take away my pencil and paper. To this day I think one of the worst things religions due is they seem to bore you into submission! I used to sit and wonder how it was possible that Jesus the son of god could just stand there and be killed? I mean didn't he have any powers aside from turning sticks into snakes and healing the blind? I also read about the infinity gauntlet and how anyone who could wield it essentially became a god! I also read about Thor, Zeus, Loki, hercules, and the whole pantheon of gods. At this point I was around 10-11 years old and going to church started to really piss me off. It's the age where you start to develop independence and I got the courage to ask my dad why he never went to church? He was always working so I didn't see him often and I always assumed he was also religious because he never stopped my mom from making me go to church. Well he said, I dont go to church because he dont agree with everything they say there," I told him I didn't agree either and he smiled. He asked me what I had learned about science, and I told him I tried to learn as much as I could but I didn't understand most of it. Thats when he told me to research something called evolution. I remembered seeing it in X Men how mutants where an evolved form of humans with powers. I started reading the encyclopedia and I thought I had figured it out, people weren't made they evolved, everything evolved! After that realization any fear of religion I had left in me was completely gone. I laughed at the concept of hell, I though the idea of man being made of dirt was ridiculous, and I started asking questions again. I told them I though Catholicism was a joke and the death of Jesus was a poor plot device. I told them that comic books had much better story lines and they where alot better at giving people good morals. X Men spoke out against discrimination and racism, in spiderman his uncle said "with great power comes great responsibility," that became his theme and he always helped everyone in need. Countless arguments went on for the next couple of years, everyone pointing the finger at my father for encouraging my disbelief. I told them I wouldn't go to church anymore and that it was wrong to force me to go! Finally around 13 they stopped forcing me to go to church. Around 15 my interest in philosophy grew after reading about Thanos and how he was symbolic of friedrich nietzsche because of his nihilism. It was then that I learned that my father was an atheist and he told me more about Darwin and natural selection. He showed me how different plant and animal life adapted to there surroundings and his statements where only reinforced by everything I learned in school. I'm always thankful for having one rational person to show me the light when I thought everyone was insane! I am also thankful for Marvel comics stimulating my imagination and eventually causing my interest in art, philosophy, and body building.

I always tell everyone who has children that they should give them comic books, they stimulate creativity and encourage a critical thinking approach through out life. I think if people studied the bible with the idea that it was fictional perhaps we could extract something useful from it. But it is the fact that indoctrinated people regard it as real that is the problem. If it where not for comic books my religiously indoctrinated family may have won the battle and made me a sheep. But I had The Incredible Hulk, Silver Surfer, Darwin, logic, and The X Men on my side, all they had was Jesus and the fear of hell!!  Just thought I would share this with everyone, tell me what you think.