(April 23, 2010 at 10:17 am)Worldquest Wrote: Religion tends to tie you into what seems a bit like a contract, but when you pick and choose, as I do, from whichever religion or tradition or anything at all, you're completely in charge of what you wish to believe and you can be totally honest with yourself.
I don't consider that to be honesty by any definition. It is nothing more than magical thinking. Honesty would be to base what you believe on the evidence before you.
(April 23, 2010 at 10:17 am)Worldquest Wrote: There was a time, a long time ago, when I was tempted to reject god (and for a few minutes I was an atheist while I pondered) but when I realised how flimsy my reasons for doing that were, I had a rethink and I realised that it wasn't god that I had a problem with, it was my circumstances.
That's because your atheism was not real. It was you trying to 'choose' what to believe. True atheism comes about when one realizes that none of that superstitious mythology has any basis in reality. From there, it all begins to make sense (as long as you educate yourself on the subject).
