Reply #60: Here's my belated attempt.

[Igel]

"If you used to believe but don't no longer, how did that happen?"

First, I'm pretty sure I do still believe. However I worked for a church for nearly a decade, and was in it for 5 years before that. It was a small church, so I knew pretty much everybody, even though it was also spread out across the US. We had an annual 8-day retreat each fall, and I lived in a few different parts of the country prior to working for it.

I left the church in 1991.

I still believe because my beliefs had absolutely nothing to do with the church or with anybody in the church. They also have little to do with me--whether I live by them or not, I still believe that they're true. I thought through them, checked that what I took as evidence and the logic used in drawing conclusions were acceptable and adequate for my purposes, and that what I thought "adequate" was indeed adequate. I haven't changed my mind about that last point. The process I put this set of beliefs through is the same I'd use today. I rejected some minor bits in the church doctrines but saw no point in making a big deal over the fact.

Now, I left when the church was going a bit goofy and in two years lost about 40% of its membership. A decade later, it split, and lost more.

Why did people leave?

In some cases, they said they didn't ever really believe it. That strikes me as unlikely in most cases, but possible in a few--you cheat on your wife for years, what's to keep you from lying?

In other cases, they believed because a certain man told them it was true--they had faith not in the doctrines, but in the preacher or some contact person. When that person lost faith, well--if *he* didn't believe it, how can I?

In other cases, they converted because of some need: There'd been something upsetting, or they needed the comfort that some church member provided, and the church was a convenient shelter; with the shelter came the doctrines, and they were emotionally attached to them and accepted them without seriously critiquing them. Then, later, they didn't have an emotional need and moved on. Perhaps the need was for a higher power, and the doctrines at hand were the ones from "my" church.

Some grew up in the church and had never really questioned their faith.

You've heard that some teenagers aren't really in love with their significant others, but are in love with the idea of being in love? Some people love the idea of believing. They so want to believe in *something* that they try and try, but eventually give up.

Some people find that they no longer find their logic or their criteria for accepting "evidence" to be the same. They've shifted their thinking and with it, what their faith was built on. Others haven't actually thought through the consequences of their belief system--and when they are confronted with something novel or consider something in a different light their logic comes unravelled. For example, I have no problem with saying "God is love", "God is omnipotent," and also saying that God allowed the Holocaust. There's no inconsistency there, no conundrum to be solved. For others, the inconsistency is so great that the only conclusion is that God doesn't exist or is evil--and if they're given a counterargument, they don't find it convincing. So be it.