Reply #111: Yeah, it's an interesting question.... [View All]

[pipi_k]

I don't know if I would say it's always a choice.

In my case, I was introduced to religion at the age of ten when my family moved one door away from a Protestant church and we kids were sent there even though our parents had both been brought up Catholic and my father was well on his way to turning Atheist.

I chose to believe.

Then, gradually, I decided NOT to believe. I sort of got interested in the natural sciences and it was hard to reconcile Evolution with Adam and Eve, and since Evolution made more sense to me, I decided that much of what was written in the Bible was, more or less, a quaint collection of stories told by superstitious, ignorant people.

For others, perhaps religion has been hammered into their heads so thoroughly that there's little to no chance of escape from it...in which case it's probably not a choice. They might even need to be deprogrammed, much like someone who's been brainwashed by a cult.


So my answer is that sometimes it is a choice, sometimes it's not.