G Alan, this is somewhat off topic because I was never a believer, but it may shed a bit of light on the situation.
I learned to read very young -- about 2½ -- and was reading voraciously and well above my grade level when I finally got to grade 1. Always on the lookout for something new to read, I came across The Bible In Pictures in my parents' library. I worked my way through it several times by about age seven, but without any "spiritual guidance" from any adults. (No one in my family was a regular churchgoer, and so this book was my introduction to the Judeo-Christian god and all the major characters and stories.)
It's never been any more than a storybook to me. Jesus supposedly coming back from the dead was (and still is) indistinguishable from a fictional event from a TV show. There are innumerable other reasons that I will not consider becoming a Christian, but all those reasons are secondary to the fact that it never seemed real enough to actually believe.
I learned to read very young -- about 2½ -- and was reading voraciously and well above my grade level when I finally got to grade 1. Always on the lookout for something new to read, I came across The Bible In Pictures in my parents' library. I worked my way through it several times by about age seven, but without any "spiritual guidance" from any adults. (No one in my family was a regular churchgoer, and so this book was my introduction to the Judeo-Christian god and all the major characters and stories.)
It's never been any more than a storybook to me. Jesus supposedly coming back from the dead was (and still is) indistinguishable from a fictional event from a TV show. There are innumerable other reasons that I will not consider becoming a Christian, but all those reasons are secondary to the fact that it never seemed real enough to actually believe.
