Ask the former fundamentalist who was exposed to (and accepted) evolution

[Dana_Scully]

To the OP: It sounds as though your family took it as well as could be expected (except for your mother) and I give them a lot of credit for it. It must have been hard for them to swallow, so to speak, and reading your posts, it appears that you appreciate their efforts. I know a LOT of people who “came out” to their families (religion, gay, so on) whose families more or less considered them dead and never wanted to speak to them again.

So “good on them” for being good sports about it (or at least going through the motions) and “good on you” for having the intellectual honesty to seek the truth in the face of the disapproval of others.

[Find_Friends]

@Cyningablod

You might have a point. I dunno. I just use the term because it’s arguably less ideologically loaded than “apostasize”.

Maybe we need to coin a neologism that neutrally but accurately describes the process of leaving one’s religion.

How about “upgrowing” for an in-your face term?

Maybe someone else can come up with something less confrontational.

- Og

[DiggitCamara]

@jtgain

I think this is along the right lines. What if God had dictated evolution in full scientific detail to ancient people? They wouldn’t have understood a word of it and wouldn’t have written it down or passed it on because it would have had no meaning to them.

It’s sort of like when your six year old kid asks about a complex subject. You dumb it down for them so that they can get the general concept to begin to understand it. You don’t immediately give a lecture like you were talking to a PhD because the kid would get zero information from it.

This short story by I. Asimov tackles your comment rather nicely.