(February 7, 2014 at 4:10 am)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: Given that I was once a fundamentalist Christian like some the creationists in this thread (creationism was drummed into my brain too) who insist on debating atheists, as I also once did online, I can only hope that everyone's diligent and persistent rebuttals will plant little seeds of doubt into the believers' heads. Maybe it won't sprout for many years but that's okay, something is still better than nothing.
Though I was never religious, unless you consider "libertarian" a religion (which I've argued that it is), I can strongly relate. For the newcomers to this forum, I was once a Reagan idolizing conservative Republican.
Gradually, as I saw reality not conforming to my ideas of how it was supposed to work and as I learned new things that didn't support my old ideology, I began to shift accordingly. Over the course of 15 years, I went from conservative to libertarian to moderate libertarian to liberal.
Those who are thoughtful enough and who care more about what's really correct than their own pride are capable of saying "I was wrong" and shifting to a new worldview that conforms to the known facts.
Escaping religion has to be even harder than shifting political affiliation, partly because of the emotional aspect and partly because its harder to disprove the supernatural. With a political or economic ideology, you eventually expect the proof to be in the pudding. For example, when tax cuts for the wealthy don't trickle down, create jobs or pay for themselves, you have counter-evidence for the ideology of Reaganomics. On the other hand, it might be easier to cling to ideas about the afterlife, because nobody ever comes back to say "not so".
I have a lot of respect for ex-Christians and others who've escaped religion.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
