Pretty standard story

[Tsuyoiko]

I was brought up Methodist and began to question Christianity when I read the Bible cover to cover at the age of 12 for a Sunday School project. So much of it was unsuitable reading for a 12 year old I began to wonder a) why we should follow this book, and b) just how many adults had actually read it that they thought it was an appropriate thing for a kid to read!

A couple of years after that we got a good Religious Studies teacher at school, so Religious Studies stopped being Bible study and started being a study of comparative religions and moral issues. Learning about all the different religions people believed in made me doubt that Christianity was anything special. Our teacher also admitted that he was an atheist, which made me realise it's OK not to believe in god.

I went on to study Philosophy at university, which gave me the critical thinking skills to analyse different belief systems. I toyed with just about everything, going from Christianity through deism, pantheism, paganism and Buddhism. About five years ago someone on a forum asked me to consider whether god was necessary to explain anything that I knew to be true about the Universe. It was that question that made me realise I didn't need god.

From there, the thought processes I have gone through in order to justify my atheism to others, have led me to consider the concept of god to be incoherent.

[Darwinian]

As Victor Stenger states in God: The Failed Hypothesis, the Universe looks exactly as it should if there were no God.

It is not surprising that you accepted Christianity as fact if you were brought up to believe it from your first year. After all, children automatically believe anything they are told by their parents and family, which is important for the safety of the child. Of course, they can't discriminate between sensible information such as, don't play with fire, or, stay away from the edge of that cliff and nonsensical statements such as, we need to sacrifice a goat to ensure a good harvest, or, Man was created from the clay of the garden of eden by the hand of God.

To the young and impressionable mind, all such statements are equally valid.

Of course, as the young mind grows and becomes more inquisitive and curious about the world around it and starts asking difficult questions in regards to religion then the doubts creep in as they did with you.

The logical thing to do is of course to dismiss the whole ideology as we do today with Greek, Roman, Norse mythology etc. Luckily, you where intellectually strong enough to do this but many don't have the strength or instead, submit to the religious viruses ultimate weapon, fear.

Fear of questioning God, Fear of doubting your elders, Fear of Hell. Without the threats that religion thrives on it would soon evaporate and be consigned to the history books.

Anyway, I digress.. Thanks for your story and welcome to the forum..

[fr0d0]

Looking forward to your input on philosophical ideas Tsu.

[Tsuyoiko]

Thanks for the welcome