Losing My Religion & a Perspective on the Boston Bombers [View all]

[HockeyMom]

Much is being talked about their radicalization, "who" influenced the younger brother, and even for the Christian wife who converted to Islam. How could a teenager do this? SOMEBODY must have influenced them, including the former Christian wife.

No, I don't think so. I spent 12 years in Catholic school. By the time I was 15 I had had enough of the BS, of this religion, and ALL religions, and admitted to myself that I just did not believe. I came to this conclusion all by myself, and 50 years later, I still feel the same. I never told my parents and just went along with it all until I graduated HS.

My school was only girls. We regularly had dances with an all boys Catholic HS school. It was there that I became friends with a boy who would later become a very, very famous athlete. I will not name him for his privacy. In his 20s he converted from Catholicism to Islam. Although we never talked religion per se, when the subject of the church came up, we both would either laugh, or raise our eyes. I knew that he wasn't going to remain "faithful" and he knew I wasn't either.

Although we both took different paths, he to Islam, and me to Atheism, the seeds were sown already as young teens, whether we told anyone or not. Nobody influenced me and I doubt anyone influenced him either. It was our OWN decisions.