Quote:
Originally Posted by photon
Being religious or not is not a function of intelligence.
I've known people that have gone both ways. Raised in nice Christian families and were atheists by their 20's or 30's, and people that were not religious and "got saved" in their 20's and 30's.
The ones I know usually became atheists out of reading the Bible closely, evaluating their own beliefs and introspection.
The ones I know that became Christian usually did so out of different kinds of motivation, trouble in their life, a major emotional event, or a lack of direction or sense of emptiness.
Though of course those are anecdotes so I don't claim they're representative of anything other than personal experience; the atheists I know I usually meet through channels that probably select such kinds, and the Christians I know got saved through evangelism (sometimes my own) which is designed to select such individuals.
I guess what I'm trying to say is people are complex and reasons are myriad, it's hard to reduce things to only a few causes.
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Fair enough, but is it possible people are "setting aside" or "turning down" their intelligent self to believe some of the more absurd things in their religion? Is there any way for somebody like me to understand talking to demons or having two-way conversations with god as perfectly reasonable? It honestly seems so incredibly stupid. Maybe I have blinders on or something.
