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Hello, everyone. I'm [inaudible 00:00:20] from Pakistan. 
I'm 25 years old. 
The good news is that I'm an ex-Muslim. 
I'm an atheist now. I've recently come to know about the 
truth, about the reality. I've been studying religion
 and science for many years, and I've come to know that there is a 
great conflict between both. There's a great conflict 
between science and religion. 
I've also been in contact with atheists from different parts of the world, 
and the bad news is that I'm being threatened by different people
in my own country in Pakistan, owing to the irreligious posts I post 
on social media, because I just normally keep on posting 
posts by Atheist Republic. 
The problem is that I cannot call myself atheist 
freely, because if I call myself atheist 
I would definitely be having some life threats.
Now, what I'm doing is that I'm just posing to be a Muslim. 
Even my close friends have been threatening me. Why? 
Because I only posted some of the posts by Atheist Republic,
 some of the irreligious posts. 
If there is any atheist from Pakistan, 
I would surely like to meet her or him, thank you.
Hi, my name is Oliver, fellow atheist, 
secularist, humanist - whatever you want to call it. 
I've felt strongly about this for the last - I'd say about 
eight years or so. I'm about to be thirty, 
and I work for a government office, \
and unfortunately, I faced a lot of discrimination here at the government office,
 between people giving me, obviously, stares, and 
talking about stuff religiously inclined and whatnot,
 up to the point where now there are some supervisors I feel who are also trying
 to remove me from the position that I hold. 
So, if you have need of a Spanish fluent bilingual atheist
 who would love to work for Atheist Republic, please let me know, as I am 
looking for a new job. Just wanted to 
say that I appreciate everything you guys do, 
and I will ardently support you whenever I can. 
Thank you so much.
Hello, guys. I am from India. My name is Chitin. 
I am so impressed by your page, Atheist Republic. 
Big love from India.
	Hello. My name is Isaac. I am in the Portland, Oregon area. 
I've been an atheist for about eight months, I came from a very conservative 
evangelical Christian Pentecostal group,
 and this is a breath of fresh air to live the free thinkers' life. 
My church was very homophobic, they were very 
strict, they did not allow TV, movies, 
women couldn't cut their hair or wear pants,
 pretty much the Amish, except they had electricity and used computers. 
So, this is the best life, this is 
far better than being in the trappings of religion, 
and science is what broke me out, 
as well as watching debates with some of the famous atheists, 
Christopher Hitchens and some of my greatest influences. 
Want to thank you guys for the work you do at the Atheist Republic, 
giving us a platform or voice,
 and I hope someday that I can be an activist and take 
greater part in this debate. 
Thank you guys so much for what you do.
Good day. My name's Cody, and I'm seventeen. 
I used to be a Christian until later in school, 
but my parents gave me probably one of the best things they
 have ever done in their life, which was given me a choice between 
if I wanted to believe in religion.
They never forced it on me, which is good, but when I went to kindergarten, 
 so sometimes we would go into the church, 
and even though my parents gave me a choice I was sort of 
read up and raised to believe in Christianity and God. 
I went to a Lutheran primary school, 
and there I would love God, I would love Jesus, 
I would love the Bible, love everything about it. 
Throughout my entire primary school life, 
I would just believe in God, love him, wouldn't question anything about it. 
It was only until high school when I started thinking more. 
Around year eight, 
I started becoming a lot more Christian. 
In year nine I started questioning it a little bit 
ever since I met my friend, Jack.
He was very hardcore atheist, he was my best friend, and 
he started making me question a bit on - we had this thing called
 like a 'right journey' camp, where we would go into the wilderness and
 find our spiritual selves. 
So, I questioned the Lord, I went even more Christian on this camp, 
but when I came back I started questioning a lot more, and
 throughout year nine I was questioning. 
And this was when I was really starting to get into science, and I was just
 thinking, "Is God real? 
Why am I believing this?" Stuff like that.
 In year ten, I officially didn't believe in religion. 
I thought religion was evil, and I hated it, 
and I hated that I was a Christian. During this time, I was sad, 
I didn't really know where to find myself, so I turned from the 
belief of religion, and I went into the belief of ideology, and I 
turned to socialism, communism, I started becoming a lot more political.
I believed in communism for a couple months, but I was mostly socialist 
for all year ten. 
In year eleven, I would again question my ethics and my points, 
and I actually went into economics, and then I became quite capitalist. 
I became libertarian, loved freedom and all that,
and that's where I am now, which is, 
I've left school to become a carpenter, 
and I'm not doing year twelve, but now I'm atheist being
 ex-Lutheran Christian, loving God and all that, being 
now a very hardcore capitalist atheist
 who's on his apprenticeship to be a carpenter. 
But I think that everyone should have a choice to what they believe.
 I've had a choice of what I believe my entire life. 
Even from birth, my parents just didn't care what I believed. 
They wanted me to make it up myself.
 I did have a choice in the football team I'd go for, which is Hawks, 
but I think the most important thing is the freedom to 
have a choice, and I've had a choice throughout all my life and 
questioned many things.
Hello, Atheist Republic. I just wanted to share my message with all of you. 
I'm a seventeen-year-old male living in Jordan. 
I'm half Russian, quarter Jordanian, and quarter Asian.
 I've been an atheist for the past couple of years. 
I lost my faith in God after realizing the bullshit 
that my family brainwashed me with when I was young. 
My family is all Muslim. Until this day I'm 
actually scared to tell them I'm a non-believer. 
I could be beaten, shunned, or even killed. 
I think my family have noticed that I stopped praying and 
started drinking, doing things that are against their religion. 
So far, only the elders and the adults have stayed 
straight away from me - not only stop talking, but 
when I say hello to them I am completely ignored. 
Just a couple of nice humans have stayed in contact with me. 
I'm going to say it's really hard to be what I am 
in this kind of place and this kind of country. 
I feel like my message will help others that are forced to be 
in a religion they don't want to be in by their family.
Stay strong, believe in what you want to believe, 
don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 
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