Testimonial: When I was a Christian teenager, I struggled with lying and stealing. I would lie to protect myself or just to make myself seem more interesting, or to fit in. The shoplifting would kick in during the summer, when I lived with my even more religious father and step-mother. We went to church three times a week, and I went to Jesus camp to boot. When I joined the service and stopped attending services, these compulsions lessened. I read a book on moral philosophy that helped me understand how I was hurting others and even myself. At this point I was an agnostic theist, I still believed there was some sort of 'capital C' Creator, but after having read the Bible through front to back twice, I no longer believed anyone was speaking for it. I finally beat these tendencies altogether (I don't count lying to telemarketers) years later by the time I realized I no longer held any belief at all that some kind of deity really existed.
Does my testimony carry the same weight as that of a convert to Hinduism or Christianity? If not, isn't that a problem for such testimonials?
Does my testimony carry the same weight as that of a convert to Hinduism or Christianity? If not, isn't that a problem for such testimonials?
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.