I have a cousin that got a PHD from Harvard in some discipline of theology. Divinities, maybe? Anyway, he says it made him see just how transparently people use religion to force others to conform to their preferences. He even had a mild personal crisis due to how fucking off the way he was preached, and taught, his religion growing up. He said it is why he walked away from his desire to either become of the cloth, or to be an academic in the field, even though he was offered strong opportunities for either.
I had a great uncle who was a bishop in the catholic church. By the time I met him I am almost positive he no longer believed in god, at least not in an abrahamic sense. He had a lot of academic experience, as well as, real life expertise. He choose to work in sub Saharan Africa. He had met leaders from other christian sects, and religions, all over the world. He basically had his views destroyed once he was intimately involved in international religious leadership, and how his fellow practitioners treated, and continued to treat, the people of the region he was in.
We had a number of women in the family, mostly grandparent’s generation, and older, that were nuns. They well all miserable people. They never discussed their personal thoughts on religion, or god, but you could tell they basically hated the world. I was told they were not like this until they had been nuns for years. It crushed their spirits, and made them bitter.
No, this is just my experience with people, in my family, that are deeply into Christianity. They all seem to come out with a great deal of disillusionment with their people, and their organizations, when they aren’t doing it as a grift.
I have a cousin that got a PHD from Harvard in some discipline of theology. Divinities, maybe? Anyway, he says it made him see just how transparently people use religion to force others to conform to their preferences. He even had a mild personal crisis due to how fucking off the way he was preached, and taught, his religion growing up. He said it is why he walked away from his desire to either become of the cloth, or to be an academic in the field, even though he was offered strong opportunities for either.
I had a great uncle who was a bishop in the catholic church. By the time I met him I am almost positive he no longer believed in god, at least not in an abrahamic sense. He had a lot of academic experience, as well as, real life expertise. He choose to work in sub Saharan Africa. He had met leaders from other christian sects, and religions, all over the world. He basically had his views destroyed once he was intimately involved in international religious leadership, and how his fellow practitioners treated, and continued to treat, the people of the region he was in.
We had a number of women in the family, mostly grandparent’s generation, and older, that were nuns. They well all miserable people. They never discussed their personal thoughts on religion, or god, but you could tell they basically hated the world. I was told they were not like this until they had been nuns for years. It crushed their spirits, and made them bitter.
I’m sorry this entire thing reads like a chatgpt ratheist prompt.
No, this is just my experience with people, in my family, that are deeply into Christianity. They all seem to come out with a great deal of disillusionment with their people, and their organizations, when they aren’t doing it as a grift.