An old, pink covered bible that had succumbed to marks from obvious wear and tear, and the occasional bright yellow highlighter, rested at the feet of a young woman who sat across the aisle to the right of me at the Fundamental Baptist Church in Kinross, Michigan.

To be blunt, this is not my usual scene. I do not go to church, nor do I affirm any belief in God. I don't think about it regularly and I don't advertise it to everyone I know, but I do identify myself as an atheist.

I fully understand it is something that has a negative connotation attached to it, but it does not define who I am as a person. I am not without morals. I am not unhappy. I am not just "angry" with God, nor do I "hate" God. I have lost a number of family members, but I am coping just fine without having religion shoved down my throat. In no way do I hate religious people, and, just so everyone can fully relax, I am not out to "destroy Christmas."

I am a person who does not believe in gods, but also does not have the knowledge to say for certain that they do or do not exist. Honestly, I don't believe anyone does and I do not believe anyone ever will. If you do catch me conversing with a gravestone every once in a blue moon just assume that I had a bad day, not that I suddenly believe in a higher power. It has nothing to do with God and I do not base any of my actions or thoughts in an attempt to please God. However, if you do,I do NOT think badly of you and I do NOT judge you poorly for your beliefs.

I've gone to church; I've read and studied the Bible; I have Christians in my family. People automatically assume that I'm an atheist simply because I'm not knowledgeable in religious matters. That is false.

With all of that being said, I love religion. I think it is a remarkably beautiful thing. Simply the fact that a whole mass of people can come together and believe in the same thing is astounding to me. It connects people. It saves others.

I am definitely not here to say that there is a God or there isn't one; I do not have the knowledge to make a definitive answer, and I will not even attempt. I just thought it would be a fascinating experience to attend a graduation ceremony for a Baptist high school. I purposely went in completely blind, not knowing or wanting to know what to expect.

The very first thing that caught my attention was the minuscule amount of students. When I graduated high school, our football field was covered in over 500 chairs on the night of the ceremony. In Kinross, there was a grand total of seven graduates.

Advantages and disadvantages can easily be argued for both sides of the size spectrum. I can pretty much guarantee I did not know over half of the people I graduated with, whereas the seven teenagers in gowns sitting in front of me knew each other exceptionally well. The pictures of all of them together in a PowerPoint later on proved that. In a way, I'm jealous. I sometimes ponder what it would have been like going to a small school, forming the kinds of bonds that you can only get from growing up with the same small group of people. Then again, it wasn't hard to find friends in a large school like mine, and if you decided you didn't like the people you were hanging around, it was all too easy to find someone else to talk to.

The closeness of the graduates wasn't the only thing that struck me. The entire church knew those teenagers and celebrated them. I couldn't fathom how there could be so many people present in that church for only seven graduates. But I soon realized that church is a close-knit family in itself. I also found it very touching that each one of the graduates was able to get up and give a thank you speech to all of the people who came out to support them and wish them the best.

As the ceremony went on, there were some points brought up that I agreed with, and then some (the majority) that I completely disagreed with, not to my surprise. Many of these were from a guest speaker, Representative Lee Chatfield. Don't get me wrong, he seemed like a very nice, young, intelligent man, and he even had a couple stories that made the crowd roar with laughter, but some of the things that came out of his mouth literally made my jaw drop.

As he began his sermon (he made us all well aware that it was indeed a sermon) I was taken aghast at how blunt he was. There was no in-between, no room for non-believers, like myself. To put it simply, if you do not work to serve the lord Jesus Christ, you are going to Hell. A fiery hell. Don't worry, apparently I'll be there, too. According to him, the only thing that is known as an absolute truth is the bible. You can forget anything else you've learned.

His sermon included quite a few downers, which, again, I found odd for a graduation ceremony. In a traditional ceremony, speakers usually try to be optimistic and encouraging, inspiring the minds of the young go-getters before them. Representative Lee Chatfield made reference to that, but not in the way one would expect. To paraphrase, he said that many traditional speeches have a "go out and do it, champ!" message to them, whereas he believes in a very different approach by flatly saying, "You can't do it, so you shouldn't even try." That is, unless you serve the lord Jesus Christ. This is where I'm pretty sure I shook my head, eyebrows furrowed, not even caring who saw anymore. Forgive me if I misinterpreted what his message was, but I whole freaking heartedly believe that I can be successful and happy without believing in God in even the slightest bit. And I will gladly prove everyone in that church wrong.

He also created a pretty somber mood by talking about death. A lot. To quote one of Representative's family members, "You either grow old or you die." Death is inevitable, I understand. But I found its appropriateness waning at a graduation ceremony where the focus should have been on the life in these teenagers and the beginnings of new ones. I do appreciate what he was getting at, however. Every year, we pass two dates. Our birth date, and our death date. We just never know when that death date will be. It could be tomorrow, next week, or 60 years from now. According to Chatfield, you should spend every day trying to please God because you don't know when your life will end, and God judges you today, not tomorrow, and not ten years from now. I do agree that everyone should live their lives to the fullest in the present (something that I do need to take my own advice on) but not just to get in God's good graces. He also remembered to point out that next year there will be a different set of graduates in those chairs, and the graduates of 2016 will be forgotten. Being a graduate of 2015, that one struck a chord. How uplifting.

Then he asked who we aim to please in our lives. I instantly had an answer to that question. Myself. I will always live to please myself, no one else. At least, that is what I shoot for, but it is a lesson that I am guilty of forgetting more often than I would like. That might be selfish, I know. However, that is also the best way to make sure you end up happy. It is your life after all, and your life is defined by who you let influence it, be that God or whatever else. Apparently, that wasn't the right answer though. Chatfield gave multiple options, like parents and spouses, but he never even mentioned pleasing yourself, which surprised me. Either way, any other options you could have came up with would have been just as wrong. There is only one answer, and I'm guessing you have caught on to what it is by now. You should only be concerned about pleasing the lord Jesus Christ. Because at the end, you are at his doorstep, and no one else's.

Another thing that I was never really exposed to was the fear of God. It was brought up on multiple occasions, and I was intrigued. These people talked about loving and fearing God all at once. I aim to put it simply into words: you want the fear of God to influence you into making the right decisions in this lifetime. Odd, but effective.

The only point of the night that I completely agreed with, without having to change the wording or anything, was that people need to be careful about what they share on the Internet. A bad Facebook post can cost you more than you think. Think about that.

From my trip to a Baptist graduation ceremony, I learned that we all deserve to go to Hell. We all sin. God is just gracious enough to forgive us. I get it, but it wasn't enough to make me change my views. So I'll leave you with one of my own questions-- where's the fun in life without a little sin?

Amen.