Amber Rose blames 'a lot of contradictions in the Bible' for her decision to become an Atheist
By Annette Baldwin // Faith & Culture // EEW Magazine Online
Amber Rose Levonchuck, the model and media personality famous for her two-year romance with rapper Kanye West, was brought up Christian, has multiple Christian friends, and has read the Bible “front to back,” and yet she has chosen Atheism.
But, why?
In a recent interview with Big Boy’s Neighborhood, the 39-year-old star of BET’s documentary series, College Hill: Celebrity Edition, blamed “a lot of contradictions in the Bible” for her abandonment of Christianity.
“I feel like, initially, I had a lot of questions when it came to the Christian church and the Bible. I’ve read the Bible front to back. A lot of things didn’t make sense,” explained Amber, who said she has been a practicing atheist “probably a couple years now.”
The high-profile media personality is part of a population known as religious “nones” – a group that includes atheists, agnostics and people who don’t identify with any religion. The percentage of nones measured in Gallup surveys has risen from close to zero in the 1950s to about one-fifth of the U.S. adult population today.
Though Amber is one of the more popular Atheists in America, she denies trying to use her huge public platform to “convert” others.
“That’s not what we do. Christians do that,” she explained. “I was always open to having the conversation and answering questions, but I don’t try to convert people. That’s not what I do. I don’t try to change people’s minds.”
Amber added, “My best friends are all Christian and we love each other. They’re my sisters.”
Though some are shocked by her wholesale denouncement of faith, Amber argues, “You don’t have to be what you were raised to be. You’re able to look outside the box. Now if you come back to Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism—whatever—give yourself an opportunity to just learn different things. It doesn’t mean you have to follow that. It just opens your mind up to maybe something that you’re missing.”
For those characterizing her and other atheists as spell-casting witches and devil worshipers, Amber pushed back. “We don’t believe in God or a higher power. We definitely don’t believe in the devil. So, we don’t worship anything. We believe in the Big Bang theory. We don’t believe that God said, ‘Let there be light’ and Noah’s ark – stuff like that.”
Fans, supporters, and critics who may have been wondering how Amber’s lack of faith impacts her two sons, Sebastian and Slash, received the answer during her one-on-one chat.
“I allow my children to be free thinkers,” she told Big Boy. “They have the children’s Bibles in their rooms. They’re able to ask me questions about anything. I don’t put Atheism on them at all. Sebastian loves to pray at night before he goes to sleep, and as his mother, I pray with him to give him comfort, because I do believe that religion is comfort, and I understand why people tend to go towards religion, because it does comfort them that they will see their loved ones one day.”
As for her own views on the afterlife, Amber said, “I think we just die, and I think that while we’re on earth, we should do positive things when we can and leave a legacy behind, and that’s just it. I think we have one life to live and personally, I don’t think that there is an afterlife.”
According to Pew Research Center, since the 1990s, large numbers of Americans have left Christianity to join the growing ranks of U.S. adults who describe their religious identity as Atheist, Agnostic or “nothing in particular.” This accelerating trend is reshaping the U.S. religious landscape.
The Center estimates that in 2020, about 64% of Americans, including children, were Christian. People who are religiously unaffiliated accounted for 30% of the U.S. population. Adherents of all other religions – including Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists – totaled about 6%.
Watch the highlighted clip of Amber Rose’s interview with Big Boy’s Neighborhood below.