How I Lost My Religion

[DeistPaladin]

A lot of people have shared their deconversion stories with me so it's only fair I return the favor.

As I've stated before, I used to be a conservative Republican. In high school, my former self would have placed Reagan's face as the fifth addition to Mount Rushmore. I was as much outspoken about my beliefs then as now but just on the other side of the proverbial aisle.

I may not have ever been a Christian but my god was The Invisible Hand, the Government was the devil, Ayn Rand was the prophet and Reagan was the saint. As with other deconversion stories, my faith ebbed away slowly, with much psychological bargaining and rationalizing along the way. In fact, I technically remained a registered Republican until 2003, though I had voted for Gore in 2000.

I'd shed nearly all my social conservative beliefs by the time I got to college but I remained a staunch libertarian and echoed all the mantras ("involuntary taxation is theft", "government IS the problem", etc.). Pursuing an MBA in grad school (in Dallas TX no less) only reinforced my faith for a time. There I learned all about how "raising the minimum wage increases unemployment", how "the markets are perfectly rational and efficient", and other crap. I read Ayn Rand and thought it wasn't well written but economics gold.

Getting out into the real world slowly ate away at my faith. Clinton's tax increases were supposed to ruin the economy but they didn't. W Bush's aggressive tax cuts for the wealthy were supposed to spur economic prosperity but they didn't. Other real world experiences taught me that many of my mantras didn't apply to reality as well as they did in theory.

Today, I'm an economic moderate. I believe in capitalism but one where there's a balance between management, unions and government regulation. I have a more sober view of corporations as machines which will typically create efficiency but not care about workers or the environment. Government regulation and unions are needed to balance corporate power and the wealthy need to pay their fair share of taxes to give back to the society that's been so good to them.

Looking back, re-reading Ayn Rand, it astounds me what I used to believe. But in my defense, "trickle down" was a new idea in the 80s. How anyone believes it now despite 20 years of contrary evidence amazes me but that is the power of faith.

[Tino]

A lot of people have shared their deconversion stories with me so it's only fair I return the favor.

As I've stated before, I used to be a conservative Republican. In high school, my former self would have placed Reagan's face as the fifth addition to Mount Rushmore. I was as much outspoken about my beliefs then as now but just on the other side of the proverbial aisle.

I may not have ever been a Christian but my god was The Invisible Hand, the Government was the devil, Ayn Rand was the prophet and Reagan was the saint. As with other deconversion stories, my faith ebbed away slowly, with much psychological bargaining and rationalizing along the way. In fact, I technically remained a registered Republican until 2003, though I had voted for Gore in 2000.

I'd shed nearly all my social conservative beliefs by the time I got to college but I remained a staunch libertarian and echoed all the mantras ("involuntary taxation is theft", "government IS the problem", etc.). Pursuing an MBA in grad school (in Dallas TX no less) only reinforced my faith for a time. There I learned all about how "raising the minimum wage increases unemployment", how "the markets are perfectly rational and efficient", and other crap. I read Ayn Rand and thought it wasn't well written but economics gold.

Getting out into the real world slowly ate away at my faith. Clinton's tax increases were supposed to ruin the economy but they didn't. W Bush's aggressive tax cuts for the wealthy were supposed to spur economic prosperity but they didn't. Other real world experiences taught me that many of my mantras didn't apply to reality as well as they did in theory.

Today, I'm an economic moderate. I believe in capitalism but one where there's a balance between management, unions and government regulation. I have a more sober view of corporations as machines which will typically create efficiency but not care about workers or the environment. Government regulation and unions are needed to balance corporate power and the wealthy need to pay their fair share of taxes to give back to the society that's been so good to them.

Looking back, re-reading Ayn Rand, it astounds me what I used to believe. But in my defense, "trickle down" was a new idea in the 80s. How anyone believes it now despite 20 years of contrary evidence amazes me but that is the power of faith.

Your error is more how you believe than what you believe.

[Minimalist]

The error is believing anything that these republicunt bastards say.

[Cyberman]

It's funny, I never would have imagined you as religious in any way, still less Republican, D-P. I have a hard enough time picturing you as a deist, to be honest. That's not an insult by the way.

[Whateverist]

Your ability to remake your stance in light of evidence is remarkably (and sadly) rare.

I wonder if you would mind if I may share this with people elsewhere? I would just cut and paste and refer to you as someone I respect on another forum.

This really gives me hope.

[Jackalope]

DP - my own story is similar, though I will not repeat it. Kudos for sharing.

[DeistPaladin]

Your error is more how you believe than what you believe.

Agreed. Belief needs to be consistent with the evidence. If you show me that Republican policies on economics (or anything else) works, I'll spin on a dime again.

I think these days I have a more balanced view as well. When you're young, you see things more in black and white rather than shades of gray. Neither government nor businesses are an evil to be fought. They rather have their roles to play. Life's a bit more of a balance.

[jonb]

I have come to meet you from the other end. I was a strong lefty, red rather than pink, but I found the problem was that to form any sort of political lobby it had to support a group of vested interests. I have found those vested interests take more from the system than any particular change in the system would benefit the whole.
I won't bore you with why I have come to my conclusions, but I think we now have an economic system which does not work and cannot be made to work, and swapping from one agenda to another will make no difference.

[DeistPaladin]

It's funny, I never would have imagined you as religious in any way, still less Republican, D-P.

Think Alex Keaton from "Family Ties" if that helps.

I have a hard enough time picturing you as a deist, to be honest. That's not an insult by the way.

Fair enough. If atheism were a city, deism would be one of its suburbs. I don't even correct people who call me an "atheist" anymore. Anyone who would use that term as a pejorative isn't going to understand the nuanced distinction anyway. One atheist in our local freethought group even caught me saying "we atheists...".

I don't know if I've posted this before but deism is for me a truce between my skeptical mind and sentimental proverbial heart. I see the universe as a machine and the human mind (along with all the other evolutionary advantages like the opposible thumb, walking upright, spoken language, sense of community, etc. that have all come together to make our civilization possible) as intended. Maybe the atheists are right that we won the cosmic lottery but deism helps me keep such sentiment grounded in the natural universe. Anyway, that's why I seem to talk and write like an atheist, my belief in "God" notwithstanding.

---

Your ability to remake your stance in light of evidence is remarkably (and sadly) rare.

Thank you. It's strange that we should dread ever saying those three words "I was wrong". So many would rather die than ever utter them, sometimes literally.

What unifies us as skeptics is the truth matters to us more than our pride.

I wonder if you would mind if I may share this with people elsewhere? I would just cut and paste and refer to you as someone I respect on another forum.

This really gives me hope.

Thank you and go ahead.

[Cyberman]

Well, I for one am happy to have you seated at our atheist campfire. The intent I was going for, which you acknowledged yourself, was that you are perhaps the most atheist deist of my lamentably limited experience; actually I think you are the only deist in there, but that's by the by. Basically, you are one of my 'go-to guys' on points of scripture, particularly scriptural inconsistency, which is where I find myself having to reprogram my brain to your deistic identity.

A rather longwinded and roundabout way of saying I'm glad you're on our 'side'.