California Catholic Daily reporter, Mary Rose, visits a California college each week and asks students about God, good, and evil. Interview with Andrea, who is studying architecture, by the Science Technology Center at Las Positas College on January 27, 2020.

Do you consider yourself religious? 

Andrea: Yes and no. I’m not really religious but I really want to be. I have a friend who is, she’s a Christian and she’s really into her religion, her family is, and so I’ve been thinking about going into it because I’ve never really known about it. We’re Catholic. My dad is atheist and my mom, she is religious. We used to go to church, now we don’t. My mom, she does believe in religious stuff and I’m guessing she had an idea like oh, this isn’t what you need to believe, you can believe what you want or you can be like your dad and not believe anything, believe it’s just fiction, but we are a religious family, my mom really is, my dad isn’t.

So you believe in God?

Andrea: I believe, yes, I do believe. I’m just, I’m not there yet, I should really know more. We have gone to church a few times when I was little, but now we’ve not gone anymore. We’ve had the idea, oh yeah, let’s go to church some day. But then we’re like no, we’re really busy and then I’ve wanted to go. So I’ve gone with my friends. 

If an atheist asked you why you believe in God, what would you say?

Andrea: Well, that’s really hard to say because I’m not really able to focus on that. But, it’s been interesting, the whole religion thing and many people have their own religions, like different gods and all that. My dad had asked me, you can believe whatever you want. You could believe or you could think it’s just science or you could say nothing is real here, nothing is going to happen. But I’ve told him, yeah, I do believe and it’s scary. I’m scared, but I think it’s going to be fine. I’m still thinking about it. That’s why I want to get more into it.

What is your understanding of sin? 

Andrea: Murder. Doing anything bad like to other people or to yourself. Disobeying. Not believing. It’s a sin to not believe in God or it’s a sin to not be in a religion or Christian or Catholic. 

How do you decide what’s bad? 

Andrea: Having an impact on other people. Other people look at you weird because you did something like that. Say you did drugs or you were selling something to someone and the other person got affected and they blame it on you. Because you sold that to that person. Or they blame it on them because they were the ones that bought it or did something with it. So I would say everyone does something in their life that’s sinful, they just don’t know, or they don’t think it is, or they just don’t believe in it. But I just think it’s something on you or on every person and it affects everyone and it may not affect them but it could cause harm in society.

What do you think about abortion? 

Andrea: Whatever you believe, because that’s affecting you – and it could affect other people, but that’s mostly affecting you because you’re making that decision, not others. I really don’t know if it’s a sin or not, I haven’t thought about it. It’s you and that’s on you, if you make that choice, you get the choice. But I don’t know if it’s a sin. I mean, because they say, oh, you’re killing another person inside you. And some people say, oh, it’s just a mistake and it’s fine. And as long as you pray for forgiveness and all that, everything’s going to be okay.

What attracts you to your friend’s religion?

Andrea: Well, she’s been a really religious person, she’s always talked about religion and how it affected her and her family. She does these sessions on Friday, that her whole family does with the church. I’ve gone to some of her events and that’s been really fun. I’ve gotten really interested in it and I want to know more since I never read the Bible. I’ve heard about it, I know some stuff about it, but I really wanted to get into it because it’s interesting and it’s really powerful to me to know that oh, this is what many people believe. Some people don’t believe in it either, and that’s fine. I really want to know more about it so I’m asking her since she knows mostly about it. I’m like, can you teach me, can you  show me what you know and what I can know and what I’m interested in?

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