I don't know a lot about religious beliefs but the fairy tales connected with it are interesting. I never thought so much about it before joining this site and now I am learning more about it from Atheists, haha... I know of some of the stories in the bable, like the preg. virgin, parting the sea, walking on water, returning from the dead, and several others. I wonder what are some crazy beliefs that other religions have. Some believe they get 72 virgins if they blow themselves up in the name of their god. Is that just for men or do women get 72 also? I just looked up some info on that and found this article. [slate.com]. I got a good laugh out of it. No matter what the religion, they all think they will live happily ever after when they die and may be forgiven for their sins. A lot that believes this B.S. are in high levels of power in the world, and that scares me.
One of the things that seems to me to be common among all fundamentalist believers of the Abrahamic religions is the lack of cognitive flexibility. The latter has been shown to be strongly associated with, and possibly caused by, damage to the pre-frontal cortex of the human brain. Putting it another way, such people lack the intellectual capacity to challenge their own thoughts.
There is so much garbage out there I don't know where to start. Lets just say I have discovered that there is no religion that does not lack a whole lot of unbelievable bullshit.
If you are taking up the study make sure not equate Christianity or any of the Abrahamic ideas with Eastern thinking. They are very different but here get lumped into the same basket by some.
I know they are all different. Some believe in human or animal sacrifices, Some worship snakes, That's a good one too. I wasn't only talking about Christianity. There are a lot of other beliefs in the world and they all seem to think that their way is the only way.
Count yourself lucky you made it into your 70s without knowing that much about the fairy tales. You aren't missing anything of real value. Some even on this site would probably disagree with me a bit, but this former fundamentalist (left in my late 30s, now in my early 60s) spent a lot of time and effort prying that ideation out of his brain with a metaphorical crowbar. A task I would not wish on anyone.
I am glad I was not subjected to that lifestyle. Most of what I know is from my own curiosity and trying to comprehend how ppl.could be so gullible to believe that crap. I did try praying a few times but it never worked for me.
@gemini1947 Basically they are just born to it and don't know anything else. It's operant conditioning, learned helplessness, and often a desire or need for a simplification to the complexity of life and being absolved of the need to have to think very much about living it. That was my role in it at any rate.
Also I'm of the belief that people don't change until the pain of changing is less than the pain of not changing. That was certainly my situation. I knew better on some level, but my lived experience had to be out of phase enough with my beliefs to cause me to suffer and create the need to resolve that suffering.
There is no way else tomreally say it. Getting the indoctrination out of how one percieves the world is a BITCH. I discover unkown left overs in my thinking all too often.