It is a tough time to defend religion in earnest. Respect for it has diminished in almost every corner of modern life––not just among atheists but among the wider public too. In Europe, for instance, a Pew Research study found that Christians are dying faster than they are being born. And the next generation of young people looks likely to be the least religiously affiliated demographic in recorded history. Millennials are the most secular of generations, with 36 percent being religiously unaffiliated.

At Parker, Dr. Derrick Gay conducted a survey of 305 people in the Parker high school last year. Thirty-four percent, of high schoolers at the time (2017- 2018) identified as agnostic, atheist, or without affiliation. A considerable portion of students, 31 percent, identified as Jewish, and 21 percent identified as Christian (Catholic or Protestant).

However, in the 12 years that I have been here, details of our religious lifestyles tend to only come up in conversation during religious holidays.

Not many people seem to regularly discuss religion as a faith — only in a humanist context, meaning outside of the supernatural realm. More specifically, we have classes at Parker that discuss the role of religion in history or culture, but we do not read passages from the Bible or debate the existence of God. And I do not expect to. My interpretation of Parker is that it is secular, and its students are even more secular, making religion near the bottom of our priorities. I applaud this separation of school and faith. School is not the place for religion.

Religion is a characteristic of my identity that I did not choose. Therefore, religion is not at the top of my personal priority list either. I regret that it took me so long to question why I am religiously affiliated in the first place. Perhaps I never questioned my religion because it was taboo to do so. It did not come up much at school or anywhere outside of my house of worship. At my church, I learned that anyone who does not worship God is, more or less, misguided and will eventually realize that God is the way. Because of this notion, I got the impression that applying rationality to God is fundamentally against the point of religion: to walk by faith rather than sight.

Even though the statistics show that religion seems to be drawing away from the mainstream, the Bible is arguably the most important text of Western civilization. Parker even reads from the Bible during Morning Ex every September. Corinthians 12:14-26, a New Testament passage, uses the human body as a metaphor to describe how every individual is important and valued by the community as a whole. This passage is evidence for a reason that I believe many people chose to believe in God. It makes them feel like they have a purpose.

As the concept of religion has turned around in my mind for the past four weeks, I have surveyed 90 Parker high school students through a Google Form to gain more insight into the role religion plays in the community. Names, grade level, and demographics of those responding were not recorded. According to my data, 60.8 percent of the respondents practice or subscribe to some religion. Of those same people, 68.9 percent of them believe in a higher power, to a certain extent. What’s more, 88.9 percent of the same people have had doubts about the existence of a higher power. However, it is hard to be sure if the respondents’ religious choices are of their own accord or inherited from their families.

There have been many arguments for theism over time. Frenchman Blaise Pascal proposed one of the best arguments that I know of. He did not try to prove God’s existence at all. Instead, he argued — in seductively elegant Middle French — that, given the odds and payoffs of religion, belief in some form of a deity is better than incredulity.

The conclusion that Pascal’s Wager draws is that belief in the Christian God is the rational course of action, even if there is no evidence that He exists. If the Christian God does not exist, it is of little importance whether we believe in him or not. If God does exist, it is imperative that we do believe in him. In order to protect ourselves in all circumstances, therefore, we must believe God exists because the expected outcome for atheists is either zero (no afterlife) or infinite suffering (hell), which is demonstrably worse than believing in God, an expected outcome of either zero (no afterlife) or infinite bliss (heaven).

However, facts and rationality are not what always counts, and I do think that Pascal’s rationality takes away from religion as a concept. The logic of his argument seems like an incomplete thought rather than a viable and coherent conclusion. In fact, there are a number of holes in his argument. The wager is potentially refutable in one sentence: for every possible god that will send you to hell for not believing and heaven for believing, there could be another god with different rules. That gets to a more existential idea. Reality can be so complex that equally valid observations from differing perspectives can appear to be completely contradictory. For example, what is considered “hell-worthy” changes as a function of time and which religion one practices. During the 17th century, religious text was used to justify the subordination of women and eventually slaves, as well. Homosexuality is considered the 11th major sin in Islam and capital punishment for members of the LGBT community is still in place in some countries, such as the United Arab Emirates.

So, do you believe in God? The answer does not actually matter. What matters is that you never become submissive like I did when I was younger. Choose to seek out answers and fit the pieces together for your own life. It is a question that you can answer only on your own. Being religious, agnostic, or atheist all come with their pros and cons. Whatever your case, never shy away from talking about religion. Be methodical and meticulous in discourse yet open-minded. Do not be afraid to make a leap into the unknown. Find a silent place and dive deep into the question of religion. Pick your life. I’ve picked mine. Just as Socrates said, “I cannot teach you anything; I can only ask you to think.”