Non-Believers Wrestle with Life After Religion

Homeschooled in a strict Christian household in western Maryland, Laura Parks would murmur to herself "thank you so much, God" when things went well; and "help me, God" when they didn't. She huddled in prayer almost every night with her parents and five siblings, and remembers peeking out during prayers to catch the eye of an equally curious brother or sister grinning back. But once she was away from home to study at Princeton, a freshman year philosophy class and a friendship with a gay classmate began to tug at the threads of her tightly wound upbringing and the worldview she had inherited.