Originally Published July 27, 2017 under the Women Beyond Belief podcast title.Emily Karp is an asexual atheist living in Maryland. Emily found the journey to figuring out and accepting her sexual orientation, for her personally, was much more difficult than the journey to atheism! (Coming out as asexual tends to be more difficult, too.)She grew up with divorced parents, mainly living with her mentally ill, abusive, ostensibly Catholic mother, and she and her brother were raised in Catholicism. Her father, who was always a part of her life as well, came from a Jewish background. For Emily, the questioning started young. She doesn’t think she ever really had faith, fully believed in God or that heaven was real or that Catholicism was correct. For a long time, she didn’t know it was an option to choose “none” as the answer to what religion you were affiliated with. So, she kept trying to believe. She chose not to be Confirmed at age 14.   Immediately after taking a World Religions 101 course in her sophomore year in college, Emily officially declared herself an atheist a month before her 20th birthday. At that time she also discovered and joined the New Atheist movement with excitement, passion, and relief!Original Music Composition by Esther NicholsonDisclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the podcast guests do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the podcast host, Wendy Nicholson