[MENTION=4408]Auron[/MENTION]
I want to agree with most of what you have said. But a lot of people hold onto religion.
Is religion something they came to on their own. Do they ever question their beliefs or do they simply accept what they are told.
I am hoping to learn from someone that has questioned god and religion and has come to the conclusion there is a god or religion for themselves. My conclusions are a lot like yours and the historic nature makes a lot of sense for why religion came into existence, but there are adamant people and I find there isn't a lot of tolerance on either side. Those that believe for non believers and non believers for those that do.
I don't expect much participation for this topic because it may sort of come across like expecting people to justify themselves and they might not feel up to it.
I was not raised in a religious home at all.
My parents got divorced when I was around 5 years old and my mother married a man she met in Key West who was stationed there (my mom is from Key West, FL.). Mike (my step-dad) is a good man and treated us very well and my mother is a loving mother and did her best raising us.
As far as religion goes, though, we were a non-religious family. We did not go to church or pray or anything like that. As a matter of fact, my Uncle, who tried many times to get off of drugs, used to talk to some coconut headed thing to help break his addiction (part of Santeria, I think). I remember he had this coconut head in a closet-like thing with water (may have been vodka) and a cigar...he never could completely break his drug habit and died of hepatitis when he was 55 back on 2002.
Anyway, my grandmother was sort of a play-girl and sold calendars with naked women on them and stuff like that...overall, it was a pretty hedonistic way of life (not totally but leaning more in that direction), I guess. Please understand, I am not saying anyone was a "bad" person, because they were/are not, I am only trying to explain the very non-religious upbringing I had.
Anyway, around 14 or 15 years old I, for whatever reason, started to want to read the Bible so I asked my mom to get me one and see took one from a hotel (remember the Gideon's bible they leave in the hotels?).
I don't think I understood any of it but that is how it began...
I became a Christian around 15 years old and my step-dad thought I was crazy (I think, he mentioned something about sending me to a shrink but he may have been joking...I am not sure). Allot changed for me then. I quit cussing, chasing the girls hoping to get "lucky" and trying to act tough (I really wasn't and had only been in two fist-fights up to then (won one, lost one) but you had to put up the "front" of being tough), looking at Playboys/Penthouse and other stuff like that - normal stuff, it seemed to me, not being exposed to religion for the most part, at all, except for my mom telling me that God was everywhere one time (which I never forgot, interestingly enough).
I will not bore you with all the details but that is when I became a Christian and drastically changed the course I was on.
Have I ever questioned, since then, the existance of God? For me, no, not at all. I look around at the complexity of the cosmos and really wonder how people can say there is NO evidence of God (there is SOME - look at a simple chromosome, for crying out loud, or the delicate balance of nature or our solar system - it is just too perfect and "just right" for it to be a chance happening... But I have no deisire to debate that with anyone - if someone does not believe God exists, that is there right and I respect that). Another thing, for me, is that I have felt His presence too much, at times, and seen Him work so, for me, I KNOW God exists (this trascends the head and I know deep in the core of my being, if that makes sense).
Now, have I ever questioned God or things ascribed to Him? Of course, how else will I grow as a human being?
My journey has been long and, at times, ardous but it has been worth it so far.
One thing I have learned as I have gotten older (I am 47 right now), is that there is so much that we do not know...there is soo much mystery out there that I cannot even fathom it.
When I was younger, I thought I had all the answer, but now that I am middle-aged and had my fair share of the bumps and bruises that life brings all of us, I have come to realize just how much I DON'T know...before, I have all the standard, pat answers...now, however, I have many more questions than answers and, for me, I am content with that (I hope this makes some sense).
I hope this helped answer your question some. Take Care.
