Religion
In reply to the discussion: Question for atheists. [View all]Promethean
(468 posts)But first I need some establishing facts. During my childhood I picked up a certain set of ideas. First that there is a spiritual something. God, gods, afterlife, etc. Second that religion was "good" in a general sense. Religious people were trustworthy and such.
Now back to history class. My school taught American history then moved further back to European history and other parts of the world. I remember learning about the witch trials in the U.S. However I didn't connect it to religion at the time. My teacher focused on how it was bad people scaring people into doing bad things. Not incorrect but not the full story either. Later I learned about the Protestant reformation and I just thought it was silly that they were making such a big deal about insignificant rules. My teacher had focused on how it was differences in dogma that lead to the split.
I could go on about how the religious influence on history was mostly glossed over in my classes but I am sure you follow me up to this point. I came to question and look harder at it all after we got to a part of history that could not be glossed over or explained away as not religion's fault. The Inquisition. Our books had pictures of some of the devices. The teacher couldn't hide that they tortured people into confessing or converting. Then killed them anyways. Remember up to this point I lived with the implication that religion is good. This shattered my assumption that christianity was good in any way. I just associated it with religion in general though because I didn't realize there even were other religions.
It was later learned about alternate religions. It was covered in a different history class at my school. A very simple overview, describing a few basic beliefs of each, their origins and in some a few famous figures. I looked into each and didn't really resonate with any of them. So I went about life rejecting christianity but not really embracing any religion for a while but still holding the previously described "there is something out there" belief. As an adult I joined the U.S. Air Force and there I encountered a pagan group. I finally thought I had found the religion for me. The community was open and thoughtful. They had frequent discussions about spiritual subjects and loved new ideas.
Interestingly enough there are pagan religious groups everywhere if you knew where to look. I was able to find a community everywhere I went. However for me I never really felt the spiritual part of it all. People would regularly talk about spiritual experiences they had. I never had any. I attended rituals. Did the dances and the chants. Nothing ever effected me beyond the usual psychological effects. Eventually I stopped going as I never had any spiritual stories to share like the others did.
In the end it was the internet that finished off my lingering magical thinking. I finally learned that you could actually just not believe that stuff. Still I cannot just point to a moment when I switched over. Even when I signed up on DU I was still somewhat religious as Prometheus was my favored godhead as a pagan. Between republican overt religious abuses in the public and the various atheist articles and videos I at some point just stopped believing and started being actively opposed to the harm religion causes.