By: Erika Tejada and Betzy Antonio

Religion has always been a controversial topic, especially in a setting of education. Teachers have always avoided questions about religion in order to avoid conflicts with religious peers or parents. Despite the various different opinions, do the students at APB even believe in God or a religious figure?

The majority of students interviewed are part of a religion and believe in a God. Very few have an opposed view. We concluded that students who are currently part of a religion, believe in God because of their parents. For traditional parents God is part of their lifestyle and having their children deny his existence would hurt and disappoint them. Openly atheist senior, Angel Carrasco stated, “For me religion is a waste of time, my parents try to convince me but it’s not up to them”. He then went on to say that he does not see himself in any religion any time soon.

His parents try to encourage him to attend to church, but they understand his views and know it is not their decision to make.

However, this was different for students who still go to church and believe in God. Religious students all stated that their parents would not approve of atheism. According to sophomore Adrianas Ramos, parents would “think I am dumb and they would never accept it”. Similarly, George Romero said, “My parents would not really approve but they would respect my views”.

The majority of hispanic parents do not like that their children can become atheist and try to implement religion in their household in order to prevent this. But what if the parents are not religious and never attend church, does this mean you are not religious either?

Students who consider themselves religious had disagreed. All agreed that you do not have to go to church every sunday to be religious and that there are different ways of participating in religion. Senior Jairo Echeverria said, “ as long as you follow the guidelines of the religion and accept the faith spiritually or physically”. Attending church only twice a month he believes that as long as you embody the morals of your religion, you can still be considered religious.

Despite their stance on the existence of God, students all agreed that religion is not a bad thing and it can have several benefits. Religion and God can be seen as something positive that leads you in the correct path of life. The benefits varied from going to heaven to making you the best person you can be. The good morality that comes along with religion is beneficial to our society and our community, where crime is frequent.

APB’s student do believe in God with the exception of a few. Not all the believers are strictly religious people who attend church every week but they all share one God. Religion at APB is not a problem since people are respectful of each other and it is important that it stays this way.