This Has to Stop

[emjay]

emjay, I get the sentiment behind attacking someone playing devil's advocate, I honestly could not adopt that position because there is literally nothing about religion I find possible to defend even in a hypothetical situation. I normally do my best writing when I approach it from the opposing side of that which I hold when writing essays because it forces me to work harder and do more research and see more perspectives. But this is just not one of those issues, and I've actually found it quite cathartic when I can submit a paper denigrating religion in an academic environment, although so far I've only had one opportunity to do so. I've heard all the arguments, seen every perspective, and it's all shit.

I play Devil's Advocate a lot, less so now, because despite being an atheist I still have Christian doubts all the time. But the point is I shouldn't do because those doubts come from a place that was instilled in me from my upbringing rather than any neutral and uninfluenced belief in Jesus. As an adult I've yet to see a convincing positive case for Christianity... nothing that would make me lean towards it from a neutral perspective... yet I still have it installed as the default position that has to be disproved all the time. How do you fight beliefs slipped in through the back door... beliefs so deep that they cannot be fought rationally because they were not acquired rationally? Beliefs that have no logical business being there, because they could not convince me now, but nonetheless are there by default because of my upbringing. That's what I see as the danger from all this.

And Neo touches on the same issue but from the Christian side; seeming to fear... and call it 'pure evil'... if the bias works the other way... with a default atheist position/bias instilled through upbringing that likewise creates an adult default position that always has to be disproved and therefore creates a bias that has to be overcome before becoming a Christian. It's the same issue but from two different worldviews. As Jorm says, there's not much that can be done about it... the parent's culture will get transmitted to the child, and practically there's little that could be done to prevent that; if the whole family/social life revolves around it, then to exclude the child from it would bring its own problems. But nonetheless, a start would be... and to be ecumenical here... for all activism... whether theist or atheist to be kept from the child as much as possible; to give the child the greatest possible chance of growing up without bias in any direction, and therefore being able to make truly neutral decisions as an adult, untainted by the parent's worldview.