Congratulations to Our 2025 BSLA First in the Family Humanist Forward Freethought Scholarship Awardees!
By Jay Silva, Emerson College
I am a major advocate for self-love and care. I believe you are responsible for your
own happiness, and while others can help with your general mood, you are the
person in the end who decides how you want to look at things. I believe this for all
emotions. You are fully responsible for how you feel and how you perceive
something. While I am completely respectful of those who put their faith in a
higher power, I personally do not resonate with a god. The idea of there being a
higher power controlling what happens in my life directly conflicts with my belief
that I am in charge of my own thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. As a member of
the LGBTQIA+ community and a black woman, I have been hit hard with racism
and homophobia. I want to shed light on those issues and I believe secular
humanism will help with that. Believing in karma or that a god will get back at
those who hurt you doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t want to wait for karma to
strike those who have said mean things to me. I would rather raise awareness
about those things and deal with racism and homophobia directly. With secular
humanism, people will see that they are the ones that can help face the problem
and they wont need to wait around for a god to fix everything.
My family is heavily religious and by default, I also used to be. I prayed every night
and went to church. I put my faith in Jesus and I waited for him to save me from
the bad things in life. I feel as though I was a good kid. I was kind to everyone,
prayed, went to church, and I didn’t curse or bad mouth anyone. Despite this, I still
faced a lot of racism. When I came out as pansexual, I was faced with homophobia
as well, even from my own family. They used God against me, saying my sexuality
was a sin. It was from then my beliefs changed. Why would I believe in something
that didn't agree with who I was? As soon as I let go of religion, I felt happier.
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