Religion

I think an essential problem for many people who are raised within an religious tradition is that they accept such notions as God, sin, salvation, damnation, and others that are connected to religion without question. Largely because religions invariably tell their adherents that they may not ever question their tenets and teachings.

I'm a lot like you in that I was raised within a religion (Roman Catholicism) and I remember questioning it seriously from a very young age. By the time I was 14 I was having regular Sunday fights with my mother about going to mass. A year or so later she gave up trying to make me go.

For what it's worth, long before she died, Mom herself had stopped going to mass, and I think simply no longer believed in any traditional Christian teachings. Not long before she died she did tell me that she was convinced there was nothing after this life, that it just ended. I was a bit surprised she hadn't hung onto some belief in an afterlife.

But back to my initial point, that too many people cannot remove themselves from their childhood teachings, cannot step outside and ask any questions. Personally, I'm amazed that any women remain in the LDS church, as an example. Or that any woman who has had any exposure whatsoever to secular thinking could possibly remain an Orthodox Jew. Or as a Muslim cover her hair with a scarf. And so on.

For a lot of people there is comfort and safety in clinging to their beliefs. Which personally, I find strange.