Olivia Bokesch - a high school atheist who won an award from Americans United for her essay
I really had no idea what atheism was as a 15, 16 or even 17 -year old student at Monsignor Edward Pace High in Miami. What I was focused on near the end of my Pace years was the structure of the universe, which was the title of my science fair project. E.g.
One could say that although I'd not yet reached an "atheism consciousness" my work on that project did introduce a cosmic consciousness which I still associate as a stepping stone to atheism. Why? Because the project forced me to ponder the sheer immensity of the cosmos and how puny and insignificant humans were in the grand scheme. Given that perspective, it became laughable to think we were at the center of the universe, or even an afterthought in its ultimate evolution. To emphasize that see the image of Earth below from 3 billion miles away - taken by the Voyager space craft (admittedly after my project was completed, but reinforcing my point about cosmic immensity and the insignificance of humans in the grand scheme):
So while I engaged in a lot of testy questions, provoking the ire of some of the teaching Brothers, I'd not yet become a full fledged atheist. Maybe I was in a stage toward it following earlier bouts of skepticism, see e.g.
But for Olivia Bokesch this was not true, as she came out fully as a non-believer in high school, and while ensconced in a small burg in South Carolina. Her award winning essay (from Americans United for Separation of Church and State), see e.g.
https://www.au.org/blogs/Essay-Contest-2020-Bokesch
touched on the issue of religious influence in schools, as well as discrimination by religious types against non-believers (like herself) and other minorities, e.g LGBT. One of the most revelatory paragraphs in her essay is the following:
"Another event that opened my eyes wider to the intertwinement of religion in society was in my first year of high school, before my first varsity tennis match. My coach called for everyone to say the Lord’s Prayer after our ritual pep talk. As a now seasoned atheist, who had learned to put my head down out of respect for others during prayer, I was still uncomfortable. When my coach realized I was not saying the prayer, she stopped and said, “All of you better be saying the prayer, not saying it is like kneeling for the national anthem.” I was taken aback, but as it was my first year on the team, I just nodded and went along with it."
I was struck by the fact her first year high school tennis experience could so profoundly reveal the tentacles of religion. In this case her tennis coach calling on the team to mutter the Lord's prayer after the pep talk, almost like a classic Pavlovian reaction. But at the same time, this girl of 14 - a "now seasoned atheist" - had learned in such an environment the best strategy was to not make waves, just "put her head down" and do pretend prayer.
She then comes away with this insight:
"These experiences at my church, school and official meetings opened my eyes to a world where America, the face of religious freedom, was not so free from its Protestant origins after all. I began to understand the flaws in integrating religion into society and politics."
Showing she'd already assimilated what I'd written about not long ago, regarding the religion meme's high infection rate and why it's wrapped its tentacles so tightly around our society. E.g.
As I think back on my own experience at roughly the same age, the closest I came to a similar insight was while watching a JFK campaign speech in September, 1960 - to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. See e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBNlS8Zg1WA
Kennedy stated firmly to the gathered Protestant ministers that he believed in an America where the separation of church and state was "absolute" and that this was also an America in which no Catholic prelate could tell a (Catholic) president how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his flock how to vote. Also,
"Where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the man who might appoint him, or elect him."
Adding: "I believe in an America that is neither Catholic, Protestant or Jewish, and where no public official accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source."
JFK's words resonated with me even though I'd started attending a Catholic high school. But what most angered me was that he shouldn't have had to muster such a defense of church-state separation at all. It ought to have been self-evident from the Constitution (and Jefferson's wall of separation) to all those ministers. gathered at the Rice Hotel in Houston. What it showed me is how glaringly religion had insinuated itself into the nation's political and public life. Like Olivia before her first varsity tennis match, I'd had my awakening on the toxic forces of religion in society, and it was rude.
My own confrontations with religious effrontery and bigotry would follow many decades after that high school experience (with JFK's speech) since I was not an atheist yet, like Olivia. While Olivia was a seasoned atheist in her freshman high school year, I would need at least ten more - before the earliest germinating seeds were sown.
These wouldn't come to full maturity until many decades later, e.g. in assorted work environments, and also when trying to get my first atheist book published, e.g.
And being told it was "too aggressive" and would have to be "severely edited". (And reduced in volume). Rather than allow a diluted version to be published I went the self-publishing route. Nearly all the copies actually printed - about 3,500 - were sold out in three months to members of the American Atheists. Below, me signing copies at the American Atheists Convention in Orlando, in April, 2001:
I am not sure what Olivia's exact path to atheism was but in my case I had Loyola University's Jesuits to thank the most. This was for allowing Jean -Paul Sartre to appear at the Loyola Fieldhouse to discuss his existentialist work, 'Being and Nothingness'. One former classmate of mine at Pace, on learning I was an atheist, recently wrote in a note at classmates.com: "Ha, a Catholic high school kid is an atheist.That is hilarious.".
But it was actually the more mature Catholic University freshman - able to read Sartre's dense tome - and who thereby took his first steps into atheism. A development that likely wouldn't have occurred without the Jesuits commitment to critical thinking, and free speech.
See Also:
