Religion
In reply to the discussion: Question for atheists. [View all]Maedhros
(10,007 posts)I was an altar boy and a member of the youth group at church.
What did it for me was attending a Search retreat as a junior in high school. The first night of the retreat ended with a group activity centered on a theatrical presentation designed to show us how much Jesus loved us. Everyone had a very emotional response to the presentation, with lots of crying and hugging.
Everyone but me, that is. I felt guilty, because I wasn't having the same emotional response.
After that first night, I began to notice all the manipulative tricks being used. For example, they took all of our watches and covered all the clocks so that we would have no sense of time. The constant love-bombing. The subtle pressure to respond in particular ways to different situations. I started to resent being the target of psy-ops.
By the end of the retreat, my faith was gone. I realized the only reason that I had had any 'faith' in the first place was because I was indoctrinated as a child, and I didn't need any of it.