My family is full of intelligent people who are very religious. In fact, my brother and I had similar childhood indoctorinization, and here I am, an atheist, while he has a big shelf full of Christian apologetics books and recently went on a year long mission trip. He's certainly no less intelligent than me. I have also wondered what it is that makes me different.
I think what it came down to for me is that I allowed myself to ask questions about everything, even the stuff we weren't supposed to question. I can still remember my mom's reaction one day when I referred to the creation myth as a "myth". It was a very disappointed, "how could you even think that" kind of response, and she was clearly uncomfortable with the term even after I explained that I merely meant it as a description of the way the story was written. (I still believed at the time.) The message was clear - we do NOT question the creation story.
It was a theme that ran through my childhood in a much more subtle way than that. There are some things that it was NOT OKAY to question. It took me a long time and disengagement from the church to get to a point where I could look at the questions that I had been sweeping under the rug in an objective manner.
I think what it came down to for me is that I allowed myself to ask questions about everything, even the stuff we weren't supposed to question. I can still remember my mom's reaction one day when I referred to the creation myth as a "myth". It was a very disappointed, "how could you even think that" kind of response, and she was clearly uncomfortable with the term even after I explained that I merely meant it as a description of the way the story was written. (I still believed at the time.) The message was clear - we do NOT question the creation story.
It was a theme that ran through my childhood in a much more subtle way than that. There are some things that it was NOT OKAY to question. It took me a long time and disengagement from the church to get to a point where I could look at the questions that I had been sweeping under the rug in an objective manner.
