"Believing in God is like believing in Santa Clause and/or the Tooth Fairy"

[Bohm_Bawerk]

this presupposes that a person can’t rationally come to a belief in God and that organized religion is nothing more than a peer pressure group. Yet, with the exception of a few weird cults people move freely into and out of belief systems.

This is not true at all. The single most important variable in the formation of a person’s religious identity is whether they were raised in that religion. If you were raised a Catholic, chances are you’ll be Catholic. If you were raised Jewish, chances are you’ll be Jewish. And much the same can be said of other faiths. Why else does the Catholic Church promote infant baptism, if not to ensure that the child is open to Catholicism as early as possible so that they grow up Catholic?

Many religious people need to ask themselves this: Am I following my religion because it is the truth, or am I following my religion because it was the one I was brought up in?

Even those who do “convert”, tend to convert to a religion that is very similar to their own. This explains why out of all conversions away from Catholicism, most conversions occur to Orthodoxy than any other belief.

 

[Bohm_Bawerk]

Unlike Santa Claus or the tooth fairy, God can and does reveal Himself to us, and produces results.

He never revealed himself to me.

 

[Eric_Hilbert]

Forum-wide ban on atheism threads.
Thread closed.