Question

[Whateverist]

You belong to a church, yet the religious views under your username is listed as “Do not like religion.”  Uh huh.

In any event, I grew up in a mostly non-practicing Catholic household.  I never truly believed in any god, and I’m beyond thankful that I’ve only ever been in a church 10 or fewer times in my life.

Haha!  You caught that.  Yep, I do go to church.   "Religion" and "religious" people frustrate me.  I don't like legalism that falls into religion, nor do I like the religious people who put themselves above others because they have lots of head knowledge about a particular faith.  I am a follower of Jesus and believe in Him as my Lord and savior and try to follow His commands.  Not rules of man.  I am not out to force my faith onto anyone nor do I condemn anyone for what they believe.   I share my faith/beliefs when asked or am given the opportunity to do so.   I am on here to just figure out why people "walk away" from what I believe in.

Well surely you can think of some beliefs one is raised with which it is right and proper to walk away from. If one is a racist or sexist through having been raised in a certain culture, aren't we all happy when someone comes to question and finally walk away from it?

Then there is all the fanciful stuff kids are encouraged to believe in as a kind of transitional culture. I'm thinking of the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy, Santa and even cartoon characters which amount to talking animals. By raising children to adopt and then shed such beliefs we certainly set the table for them to question other beliefs. 

But let me start over and congratulate you on your desire to hear straight from the horses mouth what atheists believe and why, rather than coming in to tell us what we really think and why. I find that refreshing and hopeful.

I would ask you in the same spirit of frankness if you yourself have ever entertained the possibility that the relationship you feel to God is something going on entirely within yourself between your conscious self and what we might call your deeper self. I find the idea of 'the supernatural' almost offensive intellectually. Why not at least look for a natural basis for religious experience rather than positing something like that? I mean, I know religious traditions herd you in that direction. But you seem to be someone who can question that sort of herding, and is looking to make sense of it all for yourself. (And I applaud you for doing so.)