Poster said:
Have you ever asked yourself why you believe in a God?
by that I mean, do you believe because you were brought up to believe?
did you come to believe after a long search for a meaning to life?
have you always believed? do you believe because someone else believes?
I don't suppose for one minute you can answer this question truthfully,
you will give a lot of reasons but I expect the answers will be that it was mainly
your idea, you came to God of your own free will,
and the society you live in had nothing to do with your believing as you do,
had you been born and raised in a Jewish kibbutz do you think you would still be a Catholic or a Mormon?
Your confrontational and disrespectful tone aside, your basic argument that conversion and religious experience is only the result of social conditioning is utter hogwash in the face of Christianity. I'll adddress this from a strictly Christian POV rather than addressing religiosity in general.
Read the conversion of Saul of Tarsus in the NT - he went against everything he was taught and raised to believe his entire life, after one brief encounter.
A great many children in Sunday schools revolt by the age of 11, and many times teenaged children of clergy families decide to have nothing more to do with religion.
Many millions of people in China, the USSR (when it still existed), India, and Pakistan became Christians in the face of brutal persecution. Many more are doing so today.
Why does Christianity spread in countries inherently hostile to its beliefs? Why is it that so many countries find it necessary to pass laws prohibiting Christianity? Why have some countries (AND other religions) gone to such extremes -- and made conversion to Christianity a crime punishable by imprisonment or death?
Prisons around the world are full of Christians who are certainly not there because they are socially conditioned toward the faith. Everything in their environment inclines them in the direction of atheism and dialectical materialism. Yet Communism and other anti-Christian philosophies are totally unable to stop the growth of Christian conversions in these countries.
Christianity as a result of social conditioning? Ha. The exact opposite is true:
Every true Christian is a convert - including me. It's impossible to have a personal relationship with Christ otherwise -- and that relationship is the heart of Christianity. Ask any Christian if this is not so.
If anyone wishes to counter these points, please do so in the same context, which was the OPs opinion that religion (I specifically addressed Christianity) is only the result of
social conditioning.