Partly. When I first came to this site several years ago as a lurker, I was a Catholic - or I guess I should say a cafeteria Catholic. I had converted in my early 30s from a Southern Baptist heritage, though I was never a practicing SB - I did attend non-denom chuches for a time however. Over time, reading posts from folks of varying beliefs and entering into debates myself, I realized that not only do I not agree with many aspects of Catholic teaching, but that after sincere efforts on my part to understand the origin and reasons behind them, I couldn’t even agree that they were reasonable (i.e., birth control, remarriage after divorces, women priests, militant anti-homosexuality, infallibility, etc). What can I say, I’m a liberal.
Perhaps more to the point, I read a lot of material on Biblical scholarship, which led o me doing further research. I concluded that the Bible can’t be trusted to the accurate - the folks who put it together had an agenda. I also saw the similiarities between many ancient myths and religions which led to the obvious questions. I realized I wasn’t Catholic, but kept going, and ended up an agnostic.
But none of this happened in a vacuum. Life experience and observation, as well as intense self reflection and research, led me to conclude that there is no personal “GOD”. I just don’t believe it and now that I don’t I can see that the only reason I did is because I was raised to - indoctrinated as a child by well meaning relatives. I do believe in what we currently term the paranormal, mostly because of personal experiences. But if folks don’t believe in such things it’s fine with me. Indeed, I’m pretty live and let live. Unfortunately, most Christians aren’t.
This is the short version, of course. I rarely come to CAF anymore because it’s just like being on a treadmill, the same old arguments, etc… but thought I’d respond to this because CAF really did play a part in my leaving the RC but also in my becoming an agnostic.
