When reading the posts of the AVs listed on SAV, I sometimes reflect on the reason for the human susceptibility to religious cults. It seems to be a very old mechanism as ancient human groups even have had their shaman or religion.
How did you grow up and how were your decisions relating to religion?
One of my older sisters was severely disabled, though I knew she could tell who was sitting by her bedside reading to her, I’m sure I was her favourite, she only smiled and laughed for me!
She got pneumonia at 17 and was very sick.
I was young and believed in god and I talked about her to one of the nuns who was my teacher, she told me if I prayed god would save her .
Well she died a few days later and my nun teacher said I hadn’t prayed hard enough!
I refused to go to church much after that because I figured out that if god existed he was indeed an asshole to kill someone who had never harmed anyone in her life.
From then on I would make a mental note of all the times the catholic god didn’t lift a finger to help stop the suffering of others.
Then I started wondering about the people who were not Catholic, say some tribe in Africa where the husband does his duty by his family, doesn’t hurt his wife or kids, and is a good neighbour. He prays to the sun perhaps or the mountain, is he going to hell because he’s not Catholic? How was it possible if god existed that all those people were not worthy of going to heaven.
Then when one nun-teacher told students another nun had seen a statue move, I said “well if I hadn’t had sex in 50 years I’d be seeing statues move too”. I got detention but it was totally worth it.
I had pretty much decided that religion was not for me. Funny though I’ve never killed anyone or become a thief, and I’ve been faithful to my husband of 36 years. I’ve rescued animals, fed my disabled father in law and neighbour until their deaths. So who needs religion eh?
... and then there are these people which have an "awakening". May be they are the most bounded to their church.
Dad raised Seventh Day Adventist, left the church as an adult. Mom raised Presbyterian. My dad had enough religion but my mom and I went to church and Sunday school. My favorite part of Bible school was the kool aid and grocery store cookies. My least favorite part? Being told I would burn in hell if I wasn't baptized. I became a Humanist late in life after seeing so much death and suffering. Read a lot about Buddhism and saw the Dalai Lama at an event.
Came from a long line of Catholics on my mom's side and that's the way I was raised. We'd go to church every Sunday because it was expected tradition. But there was none of that religious stuff for us at home.
My mom's skeptical attitudes have influenced my shunning of the church. She had a love–hate relationship with it, especially around pregnancy. When birth control pills first became available in 1960, she wanted in, after 4 kids. The church doesn't allow it and the doctor refused her a prescription. After 2 more kids she told the doctor: "The next one I'm dropping off on your doorstep." She finally got the pills. She has also suggested abortion to various family members whose pregnancies were inconvenient.
I got my 2 sons baptized, then a few years later stopped going to church altogether. When the child-rape scandals hit, an article in our newspaper listed all the area priests who were credibly accused and told where they were moved around to other parishes to keep the secrecy. Two credibly accused priests were in charge of the family church at the time my older son was baptized there in 1976.
One thing about churches I think is valuable (if it weren't for all the harmful dogma, fantasy thinking, and risk of child rape) is the fellowship. The feeling of belonging where you can drop in once a week or so and get to know your community. My dad had that kind of experience with Alcoholics Anonymous. The concept is good, but the reality is something else, especially now that so many of the churches have been coopted by politics.