Journeys to Humanism, theHumanist.com’s regular series, features real stories from humanists in our community. From heartwarming narratives of growth, to more difficult journeys, our readers open up about their experiences coming to humanism.
Theresa Arrigon
Setauket, NY, USA
I attended a Catholic girls’ academy for high school and became enamored of the nuns and the religion in which I was raised. I decided I wanted to enter the convent. After I graduated that fall, I entered the Sisters of Charity in New Jersey. I stayed for four years and attended college at the school run by the order.
But something unexpected happened: I fell in love with my philosophy professor!
It was actually a difficult decision to leave as I wasn’t unhappy as a sister, although I had plenty of doubts. I think I would have left eventually anyway. There were seventy-six young girls who entered that order that year; six are still in the community.
I prayed hard, asking God to help me make a decision. No answer. The answer was silence. I was totally on my own.
Love won out.
It wasn’t long after leaving that I stopped praying and attending Mass. I guess my ‘faith’ had been an adolescent crush.
I eventually came to the conclusion that all the religious dogma didn’t make a lot of sense, and of course I could see so much of the hypocrisy, politics, and cover-ups in the church. I eventually moved from agnosticism to atheism.
Humanism makes sense to me. I share the philosophy and values system. I try to live by them and expect no reward in any kind of afterlife.
PS — I am still married to that professor fifty-four years later.
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