Echo6160, there are a great many religions and sects within those religions. A great many of them insist that their way is the only true way. A person could spend one’s entire life investigating different sects, and still not cover them all. At some point, one comes to the conclusion that sects of Christianity, Islam and Judaism are simply variations upon a theme. If your particular brand of religion works for you, then good for you. If another person’s different brand of religion works for that person, then good for that person. If a person’s not believing in god works for that person, then good for that person.
For myself, I attended church seven days a week starting in grade five, with classroom religious instruction also starting at that time. I attended religious camps in the summer, and religious retreats throughout the year. By the time high school came around, my friends and I participated in each other’s churches (RLDS, United, Anglican, Catholic, Pentacostal, and even a Jewish synagogue), held bible readings several times each week (including a year of JW), brought in guest speakers to our school, organized religious youth groups, and generally investigated religion to the degree that we were able.
Come university, I read English, with minors in classical studies and cinema – thus resulting in formal inquiry into Greek, Roman, and Christian religions, including studying under Frye (one of western civilizations greatest critical thinkers). As my capacity for critical thought developed, it finally dawned on me that I should not necessarily accept my upbringing as a Christian as gospel, and instead should look at the roots of my beliefs. I more and more found myself realizing that people pretty much follow whatever religion they are born into, or are exposed to in a preferential light (e.g. missionaries). I came to realize that my involvement in Christianity was simply a result of my being born into a Christian community. Given the opportunity to compare religions, and most importantly to look at the foundations of religions, I came to the conclusion that there is no god, but there is something in most people that makes them want to believe in god, and to cause many people to have visions of the god of their particular culture. For me, god is no more than a construct of individuals’ minds, as determined by how the neuron-transmitters of their brains function with respect to the culture in which they are raised. Some people will say that this type of brain activity (visions of god, etc.) is a result of god, but that argument does not wash for me. Persinger’s work on how the brain works is particularly telling.
Of the closest friends with whom I explored religion during high school, I later became an atheist; one became an RLDS pastor and social worker with a normal middle-class life and family; one married a nice Jewish girl of his same religion that his parents picked out for him (the poor bastard had been sent on embarrassing dates to a neighboring city throughout high school); one developed a southern American preacher accent (despite never having left Ontario, Canada), grew his hair long and grew a beard, finished every paragraph by saying “Praise the Lord”, and became a carpenter and itinerant preacher; one went from being extremely religious with visions of god and speaking in tongues to being a frat house whore; and one went insane with visions of god and the devil, was institutionalized, and killed himself. This leads me to wonder not whether there is a god or not (there is no god in my opinion, but I am open to proof), but rather to wonder why people believe in god, and to what degree a person’s sanity is either assisted or impinged by that person’s belief in god. I believe the answer is to be found by learning more about how the brain functions.