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For me, reading the Bible cover-to-cover when I was around 18 years old put me on the path to atheism. It still took a few years - I was in some Christian groups in college, went to some Bible studies, etc., but reading the Bible had planted many seeds of doubt, and none of my Christian friends or Bible study leaders, etc., could address the glaring problems, so eventually my philosophical concerns won out over the Christian mindset of my childhood.
It would be interesting to know what percentage of people have read the entire Bible, and, of those, how many of them become and/or remain devout Christians.
There's a lot of crazy stuff in the bible. There's a joke that says the quickest way to become an atheist is to read the whole bible.
It would be interesting to know what percentage of people have read the entire Bible, and, of those, how many of them become and/or remain devout Christians.
I've read it cover-to-cover a couple of times and studied it extensively (to fundamentalist standards of "study" at any rate), including a year of formal study right after high school. I am now an atheist, but that happened nearly two decades after I came of age, so I can't directly attribute it to reading the Bible as a proximal cause.
I will say, however, that my fairly comprehensive familiarity with scripture and evangelical exegesis thereof, was helpful in my deconversion, in that, by the time things came to a head, I had heard it all before. In other words there was no room for concern that I simply didn't have enough knowledge / understanding of scripture or of orthodox doctrine such that I was "doing Christianity wrong", or that I was wrongly interpreting some significant aspect of the Bible. Naturally all such concerns are relative, given that I could have been right by my own dogma and wrong by someone else's, but I'm just saying that I was spared more wasted time given over to soul-searching or research or additional honing of my Christian "practice" to correct for some "mistake" that was the cause of my doubts.
I'm curious if any people who were raised with Comparative Religious Studies as children ever became religious afterwards.
I didn't - exactly. I grew up Baptist and Methodist, which was in and of itself comparative religious studies. The two had totally different doctrines and dogmas. It made me realize how different the Christian religions were. It also made me realize that people born into one denomination, live their entire lives in that denomination, and die in that denomination, don't ever realize how different other denominations are. We use "Christian" as an identifier and just assume every denomination is teaching the same thing. As I began to investigate other denominations, I learned how different they all were. I found it very unsettling.
Today, 40 years later, I am a Christian, but I am not "religious".
For me, reading the Bible cover-to-cover when I was around 18 years old put me on the path to atheism. It still took a few years - I was in some Christian groups in college, went to some Bible studies, etc., but reading the Bible had planted many seeds of doubt, and none of my Christian friends or Bible study leaders, etc., could address the glaring problems, so eventually my philosophical concerns won out over the Christian mindset of my childhood.
It would be interesting to know what percentage of people have read the entire Bible, and, of those, how many of them become and/or remain devout Christians.
I'm on my 3rd reading of the Bible from cover to cover. I am not religious, but I am devout in my relationship with God. I am a Christian.
I never got any answers to my questions from "church" or church people. Most people accept "your not supposed to understand. Just do as church tells you." That wasn't ever good enough for me.
There's a lot of crazy stuff in the bible. There's a joke that says the quickest way to become an atheist is to read the whole bible.
That's what bothers me the most about religion. Most of the followers have not read the bible. They have been indoctrinated to go sit through services every Sunday. Most of which don't really pay attention while waiting for the hour to be over. They pick up a few things here and there but, nothing captivating. Then leave and feel good about doing their weekly bidding..or its just a small sense of euphoria they feel for the hour being over.
My mom is a prime example of this. She is catholic. She has the service memorized like every good catholic. Goes through the motions of standing and kneeling. Sings and gives money. Goes through communion. All of which is something to do. Activity. The only time she zones out is during the sermon. She tries to pay attention for awhile but, inevitably her mind wonders off. Even though she won't admit it. Then feels great when leaving.
It reminds me of a regimented military repition.
When I speak about the bible to her, she becomes surprised when I point out the things that are not true or contradicting. I recently told her about the atrocities committed in the Old Testament. She was baffled. She had never heard about them before. She refuses to believe that we were once an ape species that evolved. Despite 97% of our DNA being the same as chimps. Adam and Eve she says. I respond that it's not possible. We come from one female ancestor that we can trace back about 7 million years. She'll have nothing to do with it and then switches to an earmuffs mode.
It's like Sunday school gets enough info ingrained to just accept the doctrine. With no further questioning.
She'll have nothing to do with it and then switches to an earmuffs mode.
My mother was also that way about non-religious things she didn't want to work out for herself, too. She simply didn't want to acknowledge anything that was ugly, depraved or unfortunate. She had decided the world was a safe, comprehensible, understandable place, and that was that.
I think much of what makes people willing to "switch to earmuffs mode" is that it avoids actually engaging the Great Questions. I'm not sure why people are so afraid of them, but it probably is connected with being a very small child growing up in a big scary world and all the adults around you coping in exactly the same unmindful fashion. It renders people permanently crippled by fear, thinking they can't face these things directly for themselves. They would rather delegate their thinking to others and just mimic the result.
Now I loved my mother unconditionally and I miss her, some 16 years after her passing. I'd love to have her back, just as she was. So I'm not mocking anyone as dense or foolish. I'm simply saying that it's hard to rise above the level of your parents and most of your peers. When everyone is apparently unconcerned about mortality and suffering and other existential issues because they all appear to have completely bought a particular system of dealing with it, then that's what you're going to cling to, no matter what. Unless you're unlucky enough that the abstraction is too leaky, or you're curious enough to find out things that you weren't meant to find out, why would you change?
Raised Baptist, went to private religious schooling, now agnostic atheist.
Too many unanswered questions from religion, and religious leaders. I have never been able to settle for "just have faith" or "god works in mysterious ways".
Now either agnostic or athiest. Not sure which I fit with more
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