Reply #31: You ate your peas? Really?

[Warpy]

Well, I rather liked peas, but the time I was five I'd learned to cache nasty bits like canned asparagus in a wad of Kleenex or toilet paper in my underpants for later burial outside. It was easier once we got a dog, they'll eat anything, the ranker the better. Milk was more problematic. If my mother didn't turn her back or leave the room, it failed to go down the sink and I had to drink it. Then we both dealt with the digestive aftermath and I've really never forgiven her for it.

I dealt with religion much the same way, hiding my disbelief behind a facade of going through the motions until I rebelled full force when I was ten and got sprung from Catholic school.

As for your religious point, the reason Americans still mawkishly cling to that meddlesome Sunday School god who is constantly interfering with their lives (always in a positive way, they have a devil to blame the bad stuff on) is because we largely escaped the horrors of the last century on our soil. As long as good things continue to happen in their lives and they're not visited with a cascade of sheer horror, they can continue to believe.