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+--- Thread: On losing your religion... (/thread-19864.html)
On losing your religion... - Magical Realist - Feb 26, 2026
This is everything I've ever wanted to say about religion and spirituality in a few short paragraphs! Thank you Jim Palmer!
"Let’s stop pretending religion drops out of the sky after a fair-minded investigation of the evidence.
For the overwhelming majority of people, religion isn’t chosen—it’s absorbed. It’s inherited. It’s handed to us before we can read, reason, or resist. Your “deeply held convictions” are usually the accidental byproduct of geography and genetics.
Born in the U.S.? Odds are you’re Christian.
Born in Saudi Arabia? Muslim.
Thailand? Buddhist.
India? Hindu.
This isn’t mysterious. It’s sociology.
So when Mike at First Baptist pounds the pulpit insisting the Bible is inerrant and Jesus is the *only* way, let’s be honest: if Mike had been born in Nepal, he’d be talking about Dharma and the Eightfold Path. Born in Riyadh, it’d be Allah and Muhammad. Born in Provo, Utah, his spiritual universe would orbit Joseph Smith and the Temple.
Same passion. Same certainty. Different script.
That doesn’t make Mike stupid or dishonest. It makes him human.
Being conditioned into a belief system isn’t a moral failure—it’s just how culture works. Everyone has the right to believe whatever helps them make meaning of their life, as long as those beliefs aren’t used to control, shame, dehumanize, or harm others.
And yes—I actually believe this is possible:
1. People can fully inhabit their religious, spiritual, or philosophical traditions without generating division, hostility, or violence.
2. Every tradition contains enough wisdom to inspire compassion, justice, and a radical affirmation of the equal worth of every human being.
3. Every person has the right to follow their own inner authority—not the borrowed certainty of parents, pastors, or holy books.
4. Growth, self-actualization, and spiritual maturity are available to all of us—and we don’t need to police each other’s path to get there.
5. The world gets better when people stop outsourcing their conscience and start living from their own deepest truth.
All of that said—I’m unapologetically pro–*deconstruction.
Because many of the belief systems we’re handed are not just wrong, they’re damaging.
Take Christianity. Doctrines like original sin, separation from God, and eternal conscious torment don’t produce love—they produce fear, shame, and psychological violence. Add in exclusivity claims (“we’re right, everyone else is wrong”), and you’ve got the theological DNA that keeps fueling holy wars, culture wars, and spiritual abuse.
History has already shown us where that road leads. Spoiler: it’s bloody.
Healthy human development requires the courage to interrogate what we were taught before we could consent to it.
For over 25 years, I’ve walked with people through faith collapse, deconstruction, and recovery from religious trauma. And let me be clear: I’m not in the business of replacing one belief system with another.
I don’t recruit. I don’t prescribe. I don’t sell certainty.
Some people deconstruct Evangelical Christianity and reconstruct a more expansive, compassionate version of it. Others walk away entirely and become atheist, agnostic, or spiritually unaffiliated. That’s not my call.
My work is about creating a space where people can stop performing belief and start telling the truth—where spirituality is rebuilt from the inside out, not imposed from the top down.
If your faith survives honest scrutiny, great.
If it doesn’t, you’re not broken—you’re waking up.
Either way, liberation beats loyalty every time."--Jim Palmer https://www.facebook.com/jimpalmerauthor
RE: On losing your religion... - C C - Feb 28, 2026
(Feb 26, 2026 10:18 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: [...] Either way, liberation beats loyalty every time."--Jim Palmer https://www.facebook.com/jimpalmerauthor
I don't know about "every time". The desperate flock to it because they need the support and charity of a community, which includes facilitating rehabilitation and getting integrated into the neighborhood, and acquiring intermittent work or potential long-term employment at some point along the weaving social loop of that. A degree of loyalty is often expected payment for those benefits. Whereas those with money and a good position in the establishment can coast on existing momentum without the stress of adaptation and learning curve of becoming a group or community member.
RE: On losing your religion... - Syne - Feb 28, 2026
Objectively, one religion leads to the greatest country in the world and more prosperity than the competitors.
RE: On losing your religion... - Magical Realist - Feb 28, 2026
(Feb 28, 2026 02:42 AM)Syne Wrote: Objectively, one religion leads to the greatest country in the world and more prosperity than the competitors.
All the countries in South America and Central America share that same religion. What happened with them?
RE: On losing your religion... - Syne - Feb 28, 2026
South and Central America are largely Catholic. The US was founded by, and remains, largely Protestant.
RE: On losing your religion... - Magical Realist - Feb 28, 2026
(Feb 28, 2026 04:26 AM)Syne Wrote: South and Central America are largely Catholic. The US was founded by, and remains, largely Protestant.
You said religion not denomination. Their religion is Christianity. You've been refuted. More than likely "greatness", whatever that is, is more dependent on a country's land mass and available natural resources, not on religion.
RE: On losing your religion... - Syne - Feb 28, 2026
I made a general statement. You asked for more specifics, and I gave them to you.
RE: On losing your religion... - Magical Realist - Feb 28, 2026
(Feb 28, 2026 05:12 AM)Syne Wrote: I made a general statement. You asked for more specifics, and I gave them to you.
No..you fucked up and claimed something that is wrong. Just as you always do. And then you spend the next 10 posts trying to justify your error which eventually results in you insulting and ad homing other posters who quit posting while you revel in some imaginary victory. We've seen it all before.
RE: On losing your religion... - Syne - Feb 28, 2026
(Feb 28, 2026 05:26 AM)Magical Realist Wrote:(Feb 28, 2026 05:12 AM)Syne Wrote: I made a general statement. You asked for more specifics, and I gave them to you.
No..you fucked up and claimed something that is wrong. Just as you always do. And then you spend the next 10 posts trying to justify your error which eventually results in you insulting and ad homing other posters who quit posting while you revel in some imaginary victory. We've seen it all before.
LOL! Talk about projection. 9_9