I’m an atheist. I received a fairly good training in math and science through the end of high school and am majoring in biology. I spend a lot of time with a Christian group of people near my college campus because I experience my school as incredibly un-interested in building community, and I can’t get most people to talk to me consistently even after approaching them being friendly, reaching out to them, making efforts to go to activities in which we have common interests, etc. (It’s also hard because I have disabilities of a sort that make socializing somewhat difficult.)
The people in this Christian group are by far the kindest people I’ve met, amongst themselves and to other people. But it is very jarring to end every meeting with “In Jesus’ name I pray” and makes me nervous that I might end up sacrificing my rationality if I spend too much time among them. (This is especially the case after, during a really difficult period in my life, I had a month where I believed that the Christian version of God might be real, and didn’t notice anything concerning about it until a chance event cracked the belief slightly. After that, I forced myself through a probing crisis of faithfor several hours to remember why that actually doesn’t make sense, given my own beliefs about how the world works.)
This article is really helpful, in terms of outlining what to be aware of, and what might indicate that the group actually has too many cult attractor properties for me to continue with it. I first read it in 2011 as a young adolescent, and I’ll admit, I never suspected back then that it would be relevant to me. (Which begs the question of why I thought it was a good use of time to read through all of it, but eh, the rationality was not yet strong with me.)
Christian groups are usually pretty hit-or-miss. If you tear the religion down, crack open its bones, and scoop out the marrow, you’ll find a lot of the same lessons as are discussed here. It’s old, often obtuse, and it’s obvious that the writers and compilers weren’t sure why it was this way, only that it is. Jordan Peterson, for example, has some excellent dissections of various parts of Christianity and what it tries to achieve as viewed through the lens of modern psychology, and it’s hard to look at any of the pieces and say that they are bad. Because they work.
But a lot of churches don’t do that. They get caught up in the mysticism and never look further. The really bad ones will criticize anyone who even notices the practical, good effects for being “worldly”. Don’t waste your time with those ones. They’re just a mutual admiration society and any actually beneficial effects on their lives are purely incidental.
I’m an atheist. I received a fairly good training in math and science through the end of high school and am majoring in biology. I spend a lot of time with a Christian group of people near my college campus because I experience my school as incredibly un-interested in building community, and I can’t get most people to talk to me consistently even after approaching them being friendly, reaching out to them, making efforts to go to activities in which we have common interests, etc. (It’s also hard because I have disabilities of a sort that make socializing somewhat difficult.)
The people in this Christian group are by far the kindest people I’ve met, amongst themselves and to other people. But it is very jarring to end every meeting with “In Jesus’ name I pray” and makes me nervous that I might end up sacrificing my rationality if I spend too much time among them. (This is especially the case after, during a really difficult period in my life, I had a month where I believed that the Christian version of God might be real, and didn’t notice anything concerning about it until a chance event cracked the belief slightly. After that, I forced myself through a probing crisis of faithfor several hours to remember why that actually doesn’t make sense, given my own beliefs about how the world works.)
This article is really helpful, in terms of outlining what to be aware of, and what might indicate that the group actually has too many cult attractor properties for me to continue with it. I first read it in 2011 as a young adolescent, and I’ll admit, I never suspected back then that it would be relevant to me. (Which begs the question of why I thought it was a good use of time to read through all of it, but eh, the rationality was not yet strong with me.)
Christian groups are usually pretty hit-or-miss. If you tear the religion down, crack open its bones, and scoop out the marrow, you’ll find a lot of the same lessons as are discussed here. It’s old, often obtuse, and it’s obvious that the writers and compilers weren’t sure why it was this way, only that it is. Jordan Peterson, for example, has some excellent dissections of various parts of Christianity and what it tries to achieve as viewed through the lens of modern psychology, and it’s hard to look at any of the pieces and say that they are bad. Because they work.
But a lot of churches don’t do that. They get caught up in the mysticism and never look further. The really bad ones will criticize anyone who even notices the practical, good effects for being “worldly”. Don’t waste your time with those ones. They’re just a mutual admiration society and any actually beneficial effects on their lives are purely incidental.