(May 3, 2023 at 10:16 am)emjay Wrote:(May 3, 2023 at 9:47 am)HappySkeptic Wrote: There was a brief time when I was a True Believer. I consider it a time of insanity.
In my own case I look back on it as a time of stubborn delusion. I still remember the frustrated eye-rolls of atheist acquaintances at school, one in particular, as whatever they said washed right over me and didn't make a dent. I sometimes wish to this day that I could meet that guy again and say 'you were right, and I was an idiot'.
May I ask about your time of delusion? I wonder if in your True Believer days you were a member of a True Believer group. Were you raised that way? Or maybe recruited?
I'm asking because this goes to what I was saying earlier about beliefs being a social thing. If you believe what the other members of your society believe, then I don't think we can say you're insane, even if the beliefs look crazy to us now.
America is probably unusual in that we have two very different societies existing in the same space. So if some significant percentage of the students in your school are fundies, but you also have respectable people who roll their eyes at fundie beliefs, then there is bound to be frustration. I'd imagine it's also easier to switch from one group to another, because it means leaving one existing group for another. It's not like you have to move to another country or something.
I recall beliefs I had and things I said when I was really young that seem wildly wrong to me now. Life teaches you things. But I wouldn't say I was insane for those beliefs, because they were in fact well-accepted in the place where I was.
