(April 18, 2015 at 3:13 pm)Polaris Wrote: Weren't most ex-theists just cultural theists who only called themselves theists because their family forced them to attend religious services?
That is certainly true for me. My great grandfather on my dad's side was a methodist minister, converted from catholicism after coming over from France. My father's father was a ne'er do well who fathered 7 kids and then ran off with another woman. When my father's mother died he became a ward of the court. He was pretty stunted socially. For that reason, in spite of his enthusiasm for god and heaven, he didn't create a relationship with me which would make me want to join his religion
Nonetheless, I did attend church for some amount of time. But we stopped going when he shipped over seas with the navy before I started school. I'd say up until 2nd or 3rd grade I was an indignant xtian who couldn't understand how anyone could be so ungrateful as not to love god. So I never read the bible in the time that I believed. As a result, my beliefs weren't based on anything more than my very young imagination applied to a few stories. Definitely no true xtian by any means.
I remember the feeling of expecting time to go on forever even after death. It definitely gives one a different (and false) perspective on mortality. But it is attractive in its way. Imagining that each decision I made was something that might make god proud helped turn me into the narcissist I became. Ah well, no ones perfect.
