When I was a kid I went to a church youth group. It was my very first meeting and I was really excited. They gave me and all the other girls a large piece of tinfoil and told us to make glasses out of it. I started making mine more like frames so that I could see out of them, but they gave me a new sheet of tinfoil and told me to make it so that the tinfoil covered over the eyes. I did as I was told and remade the glasses so that it was tinfoil blocking my vision.

Once everyone was done the leader started with me and told me to put on my glasses.

“What do you see?” She asked.

“I see tinfoil,” I replied.

“No, you see god.” She corrected.

“No, I’m pretty sure I see tinfoil…”

It went back and forth a few more times, her telling me I see god and me disagreeing, until she moved on to the rest of the little girls. After putting on their glasses each little girl said in turn “I see god!”.

Smugly, the leader turned back to me and said “See? Everyone else sees god.”

I left that youth group feeling very disappointed.

I had previously been kicked out of Sunday school for proposing solutions Mathew 19:24 , that …” it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God’s kingdom.”. I suggested a very very large needle, or just pureeing a camel and dripping it through the eye. Clearly my frustrations around religion already existed before the tinfoil incident, but it definitely cemented my belief that religion was not for me.