(May 9, 2016 at 11:11 am)Emjay Wrote:(May 9, 2016 at 9:50 am)Whateverist the White Wrote: I spend much more time trying to imagine how anyone could believe in God/gods than in looking for reasons not to. I think god belief must have served a purpose but the bible just couldn't be any less useful. The origins of religious experience interest me but I have zero temptation to join a society of bible worshipers. If you think the bible is your ticket into the mysteries you're basically just screwed.
It's not like this for me all the time, just occasionally. Most of the time I operate from a much more positive position like you of asking what possible reasons there are to believe - and there aren't any that come to mind, but since I have this Christian baggage occasionally I have doubts. But it's only because I have knowledge of the religion that I haven't 'unlearned' (not sure if you can unlearn anything per se)... I don't have similar doubts about any of the countless other religions I have no knowledge of. So it's just the doubts that come from the fact that once something is posited it exists in a sense to be disproved.
Well I'm sure I got a very light dose of Christianity. I can only imagine what it would be like to leave if any of these factors were in play:
• You had a lot of good times with loved ones and friends in religious experiences;
• You convinced yourself God was real, loved Him and were happy doing so;
• You spent time defending the bible's weaknesses.
• You actually tried to "witness to others", engage in apologetics or actually tried to enlist new believers.
Any one of these would be tough. All of them would be traumatic to leave. The only one that was a factor for me was the second. It could be a lot worse.
