As a recently 'promoted' atheist, or to say it better, a skeptic, I could add some thoughts to your initial themes [questions] to this thread.
I come from a family where the rational mind and critical thinking were not the best tool for dealing with life problems. Family formed by two individuals without any academical degree, coming from a small villages, without any single book read in their life. I was really not thought how to deal with the challenges of life, and my logic was quite poor, so whenever I met with problems in life I reacted in irrational way, or restrained my self from reaction due to some irrational fear of moral justice also poorly understood or not understood at all [huge subject, don't want to enter it here].
In my late teen years I started to awake from this irrational state but the growth was really slow. In this searching for understanding, filled with moral guilt and with a lot of questions about life unanswered [also with a bit of fear] I entered the world of religion [Christian]. I became very enthusiastic about it, started to read the bible and the writings of the christian church fathers. At first I found many answers to my questions about life, morality, etc., [I guess it was mere awakening of my reasoning powers that really gave me the satisfaction, I remember that I was most happy and fulfilled when I actually read] but then after some years spent in the church I started to doubt some deeply irrational questions inside the dogma like the virgin birth concept, the idea of the trinity, and many other such things contradictory to the rational mind. The thing is that I needed quite a few years to actually consciously accept those doubts. I know I struggled I lot because of these doubts and I was not allowing my self to express them out aloud for some reason. I guess I was afraid.
I don't believe that religion cures the fear, I think it strengthens it even more. Most of the people I have met in my years of living actively in the church were people who were afraid, people who were walking with their heads staring at the ground [not feeling worthy of walking on this earth], people with very low self-esteem and with limited critical thinking, at least applied. I witnessed all these people, something in me knew that this was not right but I was not allowed to 'judge other people' [sounds familiar?]. So I kept these doubts for my self, actually not even for my conscious self, I was not even allowed to think these thoughts because god would hear them if not someone else.
Little by little I was pealing the onion of my religious shelf, and I finally pealed it off of me.
However, I think I still bring with me inhibitions that are result of this religious schooling. For example, till recently I didn't allow my self to acknowledge the fact that some woman I look at has very nice a**. I was repressing my feelings.
Now when I am thinking critically, sceptically, and let's say, scientifically, I feel like 'awakened' man, bright with a sense of freedom to use my own mind. This gives me joy, joy that I was finally able to get off of me the chains of the religion and religious indoctrination.
I remember you [wegs] replied on one of my posts about astrology. Astrology was kind of bridging moment between religion and skepticism for me. I do think that religion and astrology have many things in common, especially in the mythology part, predestination, and such things. I do not take none of these seriously anymore.
I come from a family where the rational mind and critical thinking were not the best tool for dealing with life problems. Family formed by two individuals without any academical degree, coming from a small villages, without any single book read in their life. I was really not thought how to deal with the challenges of life, and my logic was quite poor, so whenever I met with problems in life I reacted in irrational way, or restrained my self from reaction due to some irrational fear of moral justice also poorly understood or not understood at all [huge subject, don't want to enter it here].
In my late teen years I started to awake from this irrational state but the growth was really slow. In this searching for understanding, filled with moral guilt and with a lot of questions about life unanswered [also with a bit of fear] I entered the world of religion [Christian]. I became very enthusiastic about it, started to read the bible and the writings of the christian church fathers. At first I found many answers to my questions about life, morality, etc., [I guess it was mere awakening of my reasoning powers that really gave me the satisfaction, I remember that I was most happy and fulfilled when I actually read] but then after some years spent in the church I started to doubt some deeply irrational questions inside the dogma like the virgin birth concept, the idea of the trinity, and many other such things contradictory to the rational mind. The thing is that I needed quite a few years to actually consciously accept those doubts. I know I struggled I lot because of these doubts and I was not allowing my self to express them out aloud for some reason. I guess I was afraid.
I don't believe that religion cures the fear, I think it strengthens it even more. Most of the people I have met in my years of living actively in the church were people who were afraid, people who were walking with their heads staring at the ground [not feeling worthy of walking on this earth], people with very low self-esteem and with limited critical thinking, at least applied. I witnessed all these people, something in me knew that this was not right but I was not allowed to 'judge other people' [sounds familiar?]. So I kept these doubts for my self, actually not even for my conscious self, I was not even allowed to think these thoughts because god would hear them if not someone else.
Little by little I was pealing the onion of my religious shelf, and I finally pealed it off of me.
However, I think I still bring with me inhibitions that are result of this religious schooling. For example, till recently I didn't allow my self to acknowledge the fact that some woman I look at has very nice a**. I was repressing my feelings.
Now when I am thinking critically, sceptically, and let's say, scientifically, I feel like 'awakened' man, bright with a sense of freedom to use my own mind. This gives me joy, joy that I was finally able to get off of me the chains of the religion and religious indoctrination.
I remember you [wegs] replied on one of my posts about astrology. Astrology was kind of bridging moment between religion and skepticism for me. I do think that religion and astrology have many things in common, especially in the mythology part, predestination, and such things. I do not take none of these seriously anymore.
