As a young person, Emma was intrigued by some fundamental questions about religion.  Many very basic questions came to her, like “If God exists and is all powerful, why doesn’t he show himself?” and “Why do bad things happen to good people?”.  She was fortunate enough to have a father that didn’t go to church or talk about religion at all and a mother who was religious (traditional protestant) and had her go to Sunday School and church, but didn’t push it on her.  When Emma was 13, she decided that it didn’t make much sense and found she didn’t believe in God.  She became an agnostic.  Her mother was good enough to allow her not to go to church after that.  She became agnostic and not atheist then mainly because she didn’t have a clear answer about how there is something rather than nothing.  She held that belief until recently when advances in cosmology made it plausible that the Big Bang didn't need a prime mover.

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Emma did not think much more about religion until the last few years when she began to feel the need to be with other nontheists.  She saw that many people have been harmed by a religious upbringing but enjoy the support of a church community.  She would like to see that same sort of community develop in the secular world.  That is why she has become involved with Seattle Atheists.

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Emma has a PhD in Physics, but spent most of her career in engineering and software, retiring in 2014.  She currently lives in the Central District of Seattle.

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