Until very recently I believed that I was completely anti-religious and took the opposing view to religion whenever the choice presented itself. I participated in a discussion on the topic and found myself making arguments I didn’t actually agree with. This was mostly due to several habits I’ve been practicing to make me better at analyzing my own beliefs, most notably running background checks on any arguments I make to see where exactly in my brain they originate and constantly looking for loopholes in my arguments.
Because of this experience I’ve come to understand that most of my beliefs about religion were more based on color politics than any rational thought processes. Since breaking out of religious thinking itself a few years ago I’d simply been aligning my beliefs with the more anti-religious side of the atheist movement.
For example, where I once automatically looked down on the choice to live in religious society, regardless of personal religious belief, I’ve come to realize that I actually think of this decision as more of a lifestyle choice than a religious one, and thus undeserving of my baseless criticism.
What is “religious society”? (I’m in particular confused about it being something such that one probably has a choice about whether to live in it or not.)
I think this sort of thing works differently in my country (Israel) than it does in other places. Because religious and secular societies are more segregated, it’s fairly common for people to affiliate themselves with a particular group due to the community’s norms, customs or values rather than religious belief.
Until very recently I believed that I was completely anti-religious and took the opposing view to religion whenever the choice presented itself. I participated in a discussion on the topic and found myself making arguments I didn’t actually agree with. This was mostly due to several habits I’ve been practicing to make me better at analyzing my own beliefs, most notably running background checks on any arguments I make to see where exactly in my brain they originate and constantly looking for loopholes in my arguments.
Because of this experience I’ve come to understand that most of my beliefs about religion were more based on color politics than any rational thought processes. Since breaking out of religious thinking itself a few years ago I’d simply been aligning my beliefs with the more anti-religious side of the atheist movement.
For example, where I once automatically looked down on the choice to live in religious society, regardless of personal religious belief, I’ve come to realize that I actually think of this decision as more of a lifestyle choice than a religious one, and thus undeserving of my baseless criticism.
What is “religious society”? (I’m in particular confused about it being something such that one probably has a choice about whether to live in it or not.)
I think this sort of thing works differently in my country (Israel) than it does in other places. Because religious and secular societies are more segregated, it’s fairly common for people to affiliate themselves with a particular group due to the community’s norms, customs or values rather than religious belief.