(March 8, 2014 at 12:37 pm)Brakeman Wrote:(March 8, 2014 at 12:17 pm)Bittersmart Wrote: Come on now, stop that. We both know it's more complicated than that, and reducing what I'm saying to strawmen isn't the way to have a discussion. Like I said, I don't use the term "brainwashing" very often. I wasn't brainwashed when I was a child. I was taught. And then I grew up and taught myself something new. And then I changed my belief system. There was nothing overtly nefarious about it.
I think a tongue-in-cheek strawman argument is a fine response to an Reductio ad absurdum claim that she may have come by her beliefs on her own.
So what do you think "brainwashing" means?
"Brainwashing" means to cause one to adapt a radical belief by the application of systemic pressure.
The catholics certainly have a polished system and they apply enormous pressure to their children to believe ridiculous things like crackers turning to human flesh in your tummy. That wouldn't happen to a non-brainwashed person. Just because your mommy "taught" you about god, doesn't mean she wasn't brainwashing you about god. In fact, that is exactly what she was doing, just like my parents.
Do you hold any beliefs or opinions that you came to on your own? I'm sure you do. Why is religion any different? Sure, religious indoctrination exists and we see it all over the world, but people can and do come to religious beliefs on their own, as well. I knew an atheist that said she had an "experience" and began to believe in god. It's not absurd. Frankly, I don't think you know enough about this woman to conclude she was "brainwashed", and if you think that opinion is absurd, we don't have much more to say to each other.
And no, my mother didn't brainwash me. Again, she taught me. And when I learned something new, I changed my beliefs. She didn't apply systemic pressure and she always let me make my own choices, even though she didn't approve of some of them.
You need to stop assuming so much about other people.
