My very sweet Sunday school teacher had told us how one must be a saved Christian to get into heaven and I wondered about all the other people in the world who were not Christian and how unfair it was that they might spend eternity in hell or purgatory simply because they had never gotten The Word. And then came the answer to my doubts that I could not accept: 'you just have to have faith'.

I would go to Sunday school and they would attempt to explain Bible passages to me, but I had become an avid reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the Bible read like vintage SFF to me. I never believed. My siblings professed to believe, but none of them behaved as if they believed, they were mean and I wasn't. I thought a real God would let us know he exists, and not have such a permanent terrible punishment for not having faith. Therefore he wasn't a real God and smacked of being made up and shaped over time.

My father had evolved over time into an atheist, and that was help and a detriment at the same time. I was influenced by the thinking I ran across in SFF and also by my father. I went to generic Bible studies, Protestant, because I was a military brat. Moving every two years unsettled my life and I think anyone who grew up in one place has an advantage on me. :)