http://www.allconsidering.com/2009/normal-conditioning/ Considering life, spiritual growth and more ponderings Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:39:04 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.allconsidering.com/2009/normal-conditioning/comment-page-1/#comment-6875 al puglisi Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:25:48 +0000 http://www.allconsidering.com/?p=431#comment-6875 Ah, so you have lived in the states so you know. My upbringing was Roman Catholic, I left that for a couple of years in my late teens and in my early twenties became a bible thumping fundamentalist. I was under no pressure to do this, but obviously the conditioning of my Roman upbringing prepared me for it. Once you are a fundamentalist then the pressure really sets in. Your whole world becomes enveloped by fundamentalism and to reject it is to be alone in the world. In fact, I am not a fundamentalist for eight years now, and I have just finished writing a book which I hope to have to a publisher by March for those who have walked away from Fundamentalist Christianity. There is still the pressure, here in America, to believe in God, and not only in God, but a particular god, the god of the Bible. If you do not share this belief people think you odd at the least, or evil at the worst. This is conditioning. One might have thought that in these days as more and more people are educated belief in literal religion and the god of the Bible would have declined, but it is on the upswing. The church I exited Christianity from was a "mega-church" and therein were the people pretending to be Christians that you speak of. The church was more of a networking and social club than anything else. I was totally out of place as the people that went there were mostly wealthy people, and having some struggles at that time, we were not in the "in crowd" so to speak. Our ten year old used Oldsmobile did not fit in the parking lot with all those shiny new SUVs. Finally, this church had more Masters and Phd educated people than any church in the city. Most of them had no clue what the teachings of Jesus were, much less followed them. However, I do want to come to the defense of other Christians in less affluent and smaller churches, who do study the teachings of Jesus and do actually try to live up to them, as misled as their fundamentalism might be, they are earnest in their undertaking. Those at the mega-church were not. We were invited there by people we though were friends supposedly because they had many programs for youth. I left Fundamentalism and ended up a theosophist. My daughter ended up an atheist, and I hold that church partially responsible for her turning against religion completely. It is a well known fact that Christ's worst detractors are Christians. Thanks for the post, Katinka, Did not mean to get so long winded here. This is a topic in which I am fully invested, and have spent a lot of time trying to understand. Ah, so you have lived in the states so you know. My upbringing was Roman Catholic, I left that for a couple of years in my late teens and in my early twenties became a bible thumping fundamentalist. I was under no pressure to do this, but obviously the conditioning of my Roman upbringing prepared me for it. Once you are a fundamentalist then the pressure really sets in. Your whole world becomes enveloped by fundamentalism and to reject it is to be alone in the world. In fact, I am not a fundamentalist for eight years now, and I have just finished writing a book which I hope to have to a publisher by March for those who have walked away from Fundamentalist Christianity.
There is still the pressure, here in America, to believe in God, and not only in God, but a particular god, the god of the Bible. If you do not share this belief people think you odd at the least, or evil at the worst. This is conditioning. One might have thought that in these days as more and more people are educated belief in literal religion and the god of the Bible would have declined, but it is on the upswing.
The church I exited Christianity from was a “mega-church” and therein were the people pretending to be Christians that you speak of. The church was more of a networking and social club than anything else. I was totally out of place as the people that went there were mostly wealthy people, and having some struggles at that time, we were not in the “in crowd” so to speak. Our ten year old used Oldsmobile did not fit in the parking lot with all those shiny new SUVs. Finally, this church had more Masters and Phd educated people than any church in the city. Most of them had no clue what the teachings of Jesus were, much less followed them. However, I do want to come to the defense of other Christians in less affluent and smaller churches, who do study the teachings of Jesus and do actually try to live up to them, as misled as their fundamentalism might be, they are earnest in their undertaking. Those at the mega-church were not. We were invited there by people we though were friends supposedly because they had many programs for youth.
I left Fundamentalism and ended up a theosophist. My daughter ended up an atheist, and I hold that church partially responsible for her turning against religion completely. It is a well known fact that Christ’s worst detractors are Christians.
Thanks for the post, Katinka, Did not mean to get so long winded here. This is a topic in which I am fully invested, and have spent a lot of time trying to understand.

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