In all humility, I am more intelligent than most. I think the majority of Dopers would know what I mean. I think we trend a little towards the egghead end of the spectrum. Here on the Dope, I am just an average shmo.
I am 38 and have been really involved in my Christian faith since about the age of 28. In those years I have studied and read volumes on Christianity. When it comes to religion and Christianity, I may not be the best-read Doper, but I am head and shoulders above the average theist.
I have been solidly atheist for about 6 months now. My greatest regret is that I have not spent these last 10 years studying physics, astronomy, or music.
Imagine all of the highly intelligent people in the world who are face down in some religious text, trying to make sense of it. The brain-drain religion inflicts on the world is immense. Without religion I think we would be living among the stars by now.
Well, you definitely sound like Seth MacFarlane and other atheists out there.
I would say an all-consuming focus on something, whether it’s a religious text or a scientific discipline, it bad. All work and no play, etc.
I consider myself quite theist, at home in the Doper community, and passionate about several areas of study. My JW cousin and his wife (who converted him) recently got their doctorates in some obscure engineering field that I would do a great injustice to if I tried to describe it here Suffice it to say that his research is highly sought after, and he’s considered a leader in his field, despite bieng a JW (one of the more conservative and more “God-focussed” religious branches as well).
I honestly don’t think it’s religion that’s holding man back from living among the stars.
If it makes you happier, consider that time of study important to you realizing that religion is not the path for you. There was a recent study that shows that the average athiest/agnostic has more religious training and knowledge than the average religious person.
In addition, you could also consider it psychology - learning about what ancient (and more modern) people think and feel about their faith. Regardless of what you personally feel, many people are still very involved and invested in their faith, and not really on an intellectual level (although there are those people also) and it’s never a bad thing to know how people tick.
Now that you know God won’t smite you for reading up on other stuff, now may be a good time to try some comparative religious study. I had a lot of fun working through Pagan and Wiccan teachings as soon as I realized that Satan wasn’t going to drag me off to hell for it.
When I finally admittedly I couldn’t believe in God, or any gods, much less accept the confused and contradictory morals of the Bible, I went out and got laid a lot.
I don’t see how that’s incompatible with studying Christianity or being a Christian. There are many Christians who study those fields.
If you’re saying that you could have been studying those fields if you weren’t spending so much time studying Christianity, maybe those less well-read Christians (in your estimation) might have been reading up in those fields instead.
The good news is that you can study those fields to your heart’s content. But you probably could have done that if you were Christian or not.
If you hadn’t wasted that time on religion I promise you that you would have wasted it on television, internet porn, or writing on internet message boards rather than helping mankind reach the stars.
I wouldn’t consider Jesuits, Rabbinical scholars, Buddhist philosophers to be wasting their intellectual potential. Even if they do believe in a completely made up religion, is it any more of a waste than someone who spends their free time reading fiction books or making art rather than trying to solve world hunger or curing cancer?
Think of all the great minds who have wasted some of their precious intellectual capacity on learning the rules of D&D or attending gaming conventions.
As someone who definitely rejects traditional dogmatic religions, I’d like to know a little more about your previous beliefs and transition away from them.
Did you consider yourself a fundamentalist? Did others consider you such?
Did you have a strong interest in the physical sciences before the age of 28? Did you still pursue some reading during your volumes-on-Christianity period? Are we talking about a quantitative difference here?
What made you decide on atheism? Were there specific Bible “conundrums” (to put it politely) that helped you decide to jump ship, as it were? Did you go through stages in your transition, or just varying levels of religious doubt? Have you considered alternatives to general personal deity paradigms, such as the “God” of various philosophers?
I was a progressive and leaned towards biblical social justice - serving the poor, the widows, the orphans, etc. My church saw me as liberal to the point of heresy. I explained away or ignored the nasty bits. Still there was something about it all that did not add up. Just didn’t make sense. I finally realized that the entire premise is without evidence and we are actively encouraged NOT to think critically about the holes in the story. It isn’t true and the powers that be don’t want us to think about that.
I started a partnership with a church in Costa Rica that does awesome things in a poor community called Pavas. It is violent and desperately poor. The church we work with feeds and educated 100s of kids, and I will continue to be part of that. They don’t think a big heapin’ helpin’ of Jebus is the answer…they think love, full bellies, and education are.
So basically I realized I can love people, help the hungry have full bellies, and help educate people without attaching a silly mythology to it. It also let’s me completely jettison the loony parts, the homophobic parts, the magical parts, the anti-woman parts, and the anti-science and reason parts of religion.
During my years as a theist I still read the layman’s science books. Brian Greene, Feinman, Michio Kaku, Hawkins, etc. I was always interested in the hard sciences. I just wish when I decided to get serious about study it had been in them.
Don’t feel bad dude. You’ve earned a deep understanding of a field of inquiry which is of utmost importance to millions of people all over the globe. Religion is very relevant. I wish I had a better understanding of it.
I spent a lot of years sudying religion, and not just Christianity, but the gamut of major world religion - the Abrahamic religions, Eastern traditions, shamanistic and tribal traditions, etc. I don’t feel that any of that time was wasted, even though I’ve been a stone atheist since I was old enough to think about it.
If nothing else, the study of religion gives you an insight into humanity. When you read the Bible, try mentally substituting the word “people” for "God, and it becomes a revelation. God is a mirror. People are capable of all the horrible things, but they’re also capable of all the grace. My study of religion taught me to have faith in that grace.
It seems to be you are studying history and sociology via religion to better understand humanity, as opposed to studying a particular religion so you can learn how to best adhere to it’s tenets and encourage others to join you. I think there is more than a subtle difference.
It’s like the difference between studying geology so you can learn about the earth, or studying rocks to see which ones make the best weapons.
Suffice it to say that his research is highly sought after, and he’s considered a leader in his field, despite bieng a JW (one of the more conservative and more “God-focussed” religious branches as well).
