I’ve lived in central Iowa my entire life, but currently Ankeny is my home base. I joined the IAF group a few years ago, primarily to be part of shifting the negative stigma associated with “Atheism”, and connecting with secular people in my community. I’ve forged a lot of great relationships through IAF, and I enjoy the opportunities to engage in different activities through the group. I don’t have any personal traumatizing religious experiences, in fact I grew up surrounded and loved by family and friends all practicing various forms of the Abrahamic religions. Like most kids with religious parents, my indoctrination started as a young child, being forced to attend Sunday school and sit quietly through church services. Even then, I was skeptical of the bizarre bible stories, however, it wasn’t until college where I gained more perspective, studying the various world religions, including my own home grown Christian beliefs, that really solidified my deeply held skepticism towards all supernatural deities. I learned I was an Atheist, and I started to understand how important it is for others to give more value to science based research and critical thinking. It’s important to bring awareness to the damage these fundamentalist religious groups are doing to societies as they make enemies out of people who contrast with their values, and they seek power to gain control over people and the rules that govern them.