Last easter I remember going to church with my father while visiting my grandparents for Easter Sunday. I offered to go with him to a Methodist service. It was a small church which had one minister who also spoke at about 3 other churches in Yorkshire due to the lack of ministers and funding. I was easily the youngest person there. Most of the people were about 75+. The church and the service were very modest. The minister spoke clearly and unpatronizingly in a very human way which I liked. During the service he handed out some small chocolates and as he did so an old woman piped up: 'That's what we came for!' which broke the ice immediately. However there was something that really distrubed me about the service. I kept looking around at all the old people who seemed to be clinging onto their religion as a kind of desperate last hope. There was something that the minister said in his sermon which particularly affected me and related to a lot of things which I had been thinking about: 'We all feel hopelessness at times, but the Lord gives us hope and purpose'. I am constantly getting depressed over the fact that my life seems so empty and pointless and I am absolutely powerless and being swallowed up by time. But something inside of me made me feel like religion was just an easy way out. It prevents us from finding our own individual purpose in life. Sartre teaches that we alone have the power to create ourselves through the choices we make. When we die we achieve an 'essence', a sense of self. In my opinion, religion is a way to stop us fearing the unknown and feeling hopeless and pointless. But now I have learnt to embrace these feelings. In fact I have never felt so free. At times this idea of being completely free scares me, but then it is also exciting and presents endless possibilities. I do not believe in God and I will stick with that belief. I will be like Don Juan, and die being true to myself. Wow this sounds self-righteous.