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pearljammer on 03 August 2010
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Coca-Cola said:
pearljammer said:

I don't suppose I was ever really a christian. I was raised catholic, but had only believed in God much in the same way I had Santa Claus. My struggle with it in my early years as a developing adolescent were very short, much like other beliefs I may have held at that time.

So why did I distance myself from it? I guess I'd been skepical and couldn't have been bothered with it at an early age. My family didn't pressure me nor were they so open of their beliefs around us, so that helped me to make up my own mind; I didn't have anyone to appease nor to model. I haven't gone back to see if there is anything that strikes me as an adult as the very concept of belief is silly to me.

You should go back and see as an adult.

I think it's good that many young people who grew up in religion leave and experience the world, but many go back to religion - I think for a very good reason.  I enjoy talking with people who left the faith and come back to it much more than people of faith that never left cause they want to be obedient.

C.S. Lewis said in mere Christianity that when young people leave the church after high school actually are getting closer to God.

Perhaps I should have phrased it differently. By distancing myself from it, I just simply mean that I couldn't be bothered anymore - not marrying in a church, not baptising a child, etc. I had done plenty of reading, searching, discussing, etc but not in the sense that I had been looking for something... just simply out of interest.

To be honest, I didn't quite like what I'd read. I didn't quite agree with many of the scriptures and felt that its moral direction was unnecessary, and often times, in my opinion, to be wrong, in discerning right from wrong.

I couldn't possibly be more indifferent to religion of any kind. I think it's interesting and certainly helpful to some in several ways, but personally, I can't fathom actually believing in something. I hope this doesn't come off as offensive to anyone; I'm just trying to answer this as wholely and truthfully as possible.