I was raised as a fundamental Christian by my mother. My atheist father allowed my mother and her coreligionists to brain wash me and my siblings. I became amply aware of the double (and triple) lives the leaders of the religion lived and the consistent hypocrisy of the leaders and their off springs by the time I was 15.
I started to travel the world at that age with my father’s permission because I am sure he felt guilty about his own passive contribution to my brain washing. I did not attend any religious activities for the six months that I travelled and felt good and free to think and act. I realized that I liked myself better as a person than any of the people I had met in the religion. The ones that had any intelligence were hypocrites and the other ones simpletons. I had also met many people in my travels who were good, intelligent, and exciting, and none of them were religious.
On my return, I continued attending the religious activities out of inertia, and loyalty towards my mother, and because I attributed the hypocrisy to a few “rotten apples”. Six months of attendance to the religious activities after my return home and with a clear mind were more than sufficient to convince me that if a god as the religion described it existed, it would destroy all the members of that religion. I felt I had a better chance of believing in god and reaching paradise without the members of that religion. Eventually, I concluded that if the perfect psychopath that made people imperfect purposely and punishes them for not being perfect existed, I would rather suffer in hell than be his subject.
When I attended university and learned to think critically and analytically, it became abundantly clear to me that god does not exist, that religion was an invention of the physically weaker to frighten psychologically those who could overpower them physically. That psychological weapon eventually became the most successful business sector in the world: it promises a service to your soul (which does not exist) after you die (therefore no service); it pays no taxes; it does not raise suspicion when the religious leaders work on the elderly to isolate them and control them so the religion inherits their wealth (mostly in the form of “donated” properties to raise houses of worship); it is a perfect cover up for pedophiles; it is an effective method of infiltrating spies everywhere around the world; and it enjoys more protection from prosecution than any other business sector because their business creed is protected by law in most countries, i.e. “religious freedom”.
After my mind was completely free of religious beliefs, I confronted my mother who after heated debates and arguments with me, left the religion and so did the rest of my family.
Thanks for the creation of this forum and the opportunity to express my views.
I started to travel the world at that age with my father’s permission because I am sure he felt guilty about his own passive contribution to my brain washing. I did not attend any religious activities for the six months that I travelled and felt good and free to think and act. I realized that I liked myself better as a person than any of the people I had met in the religion. The ones that had any intelligence were hypocrites and the other ones simpletons. I had also met many people in my travels who were good, intelligent, and exciting, and none of them were religious.
On my return, I continued attending the religious activities out of inertia, and loyalty towards my mother, and because I attributed the hypocrisy to a few “rotten apples”. Six months of attendance to the religious activities after my return home and with a clear mind were more than sufficient to convince me that if a god as the religion described it existed, it would destroy all the members of that religion. I felt I had a better chance of believing in god and reaching paradise without the members of that religion. Eventually, I concluded that if the perfect psychopath that made people imperfect purposely and punishes them for not being perfect existed, I would rather suffer in hell than be his subject.
When I attended university and learned to think critically and analytically, it became abundantly clear to me that god does not exist, that religion was an invention of the physically weaker to frighten psychologically those who could overpower them physically. That psychological weapon eventually became the most successful business sector in the world: it promises a service to your soul (which does not exist) after you die (therefore no service); it pays no taxes; it does not raise suspicion when the religious leaders work on the elderly to isolate them and control them so the religion inherits their wealth (mostly in the form of “donated” properties to raise houses of worship); it is a perfect cover up for pedophiles; it is an effective method of infiltrating spies everywhere around the world; and it enjoys more protection from prosecution than any other business sector because their business creed is protected by law in most countries, i.e. “religious freedom”.
After my mind was completely free of religious beliefs, I confronted my mother who after heated debates and arguments with me, left the religion and so did the rest of my family.
Thanks for the creation of this forum and the opportunity to express my views.