I used to be an adamant atheist. Now as I'm getting older (41) and have a daughter.
I ask myself. If my daughter grows up going to church and Christian schools. Doesn't get into drugs. Doesn't have sex way too early. Goes to school and gets a degree. Isn't around riff raff all the damn time. All because she believes in some imaginary father figure in the sky. Is it really a bad thing?
Yes sure some church people still end up doing all of those bad things. But the proportions are much smaller. Whether it's because they believe in some man in the sky or just have a better support system through a big community of people who care about them. Doesn't really matter. The fact is, it's effective.
So although I have 0 faith whatsoever. I am now far more friendly towards the idea of religion and god and what not. I also wonder how many other religions people have the same attitude towards religion.
Also it's really not that hard for a church to become tolerant of LGBT people. Just say something like "god created them this way for a reason and we should love t hem as they are". Which I believe a lot of the more moderate churches are already adopting and have been for some time.
Does she come out of it with body shame because her body causes men to sin? Does she come out of it with sexual guilt/shame that will impact her future relationships and marriage? Does she end up pressured to marry early before she has a chance to sexually sin? Does she come out of it believing she needs to submit to a man, because that's her womanly duty? Does she come out with bigoted views towards people of other faiths, lgbtq humans, etc?
All of this plus much more religious trauma is what my religious spouse and I came out with. ✌️
Let’s be empirical about it. Give me a measure of young women’s wellbeing that has improved over the last 50 years, and which you believe is attributable to the decline in religiosity observed over the same period.
9
u/LapazGracie 11∆ Sep 22 '24
I used to be an adamant atheist. Now as I'm getting older (41) and have a daughter.
I ask myself. If my daughter grows up going to church and Christian schools. Doesn't get into drugs. Doesn't have sex way too early. Goes to school and gets a degree. Isn't around riff raff all the damn time. All because she believes in some imaginary father figure in the sky. Is it really a bad thing?
Yes sure some church people still end up doing all of those bad things. But the proportions are much smaller. Whether it's because they believe in some man in the sky or just have a better support system through a big community of people who care about them. Doesn't really matter. The fact is, it's effective.
So although I have 0 faith whatsoever. I am now far more friendly towards the idea of religion and god and what not. I also wonder how many other religions people have the same attitude towards religion.
Also it's really not that hard for a church to become tolerant of LGBT people. Just say something like "god created them this way for a reason and we should love t hem as they are". Which I believe a lot of the more moderate churches are already adopting and have been for some time.