Response to the kitchen table analogy.

Throughout time and history there are many people who have quit being religious or switched religions or people who were weren't religious who have chosen to become religious. From that perspective,there is nothing new under the sun.

All of these people, in all three circumstances, live their lives and someday they die and the world goes around the sun again and again. Whatever you do, do what brings you the most joy. Life is short and eternity is uncertain. If leaving religion is the greatest opportunity for joy in your life-- then pursue it, try it out. At the very least if religion was making you miserable, then you were doing it wrong-- at most it was because religion is a disgusting filthy evil rotten thing that needs to be destroyed to free humans who are bound down to a false superstitious hope. If that makes you happy then choose to believe in it to the best of your ability.

There is plenty of "logic" and evidence out there to demonstrate flaws and problems with religion (and medicine and psychology etc. etc.). If someone else has found that the greatest life experiences and highest joys are found within the practice of their religion (even with all of its shortcomings and holes) then good for them. When it really comes down to it, the entire field of religion is so theoretical and incapable of being proven or disproved it is basically pointless to even try and debate. In many ways it may not even be considered a theory (it isn't falsifiable), so it is more of a theory "about theories", or a "context" for all theories. In my opinion, ideas about theology arent a "stack of papers"--but rather, it is the table itself. If that table makes you miserable, fix it or get a new one. I've looked into AT LEAST hundreds of other options for "kitchen tables" myself, and I havent found anything superior. Does it have flaws? You bet. But (for me) it also has fantastic benefits that (for me) are not available anywhere else that I have seen. I think you are at least several steps above 99.999% of the worlds population who accept the superstitions of their parents without evaluating them. I applaud you for evaluating your beliefs. But please know that although you have found som really stinky things (so have I), I also found some precious stones in there-- they are of higher value than anything else in my life. So TRY not to think of others as stupid, or inferior or morally depraved because they find the height of their existence with the kitchen table that someone else threw in the trash. The thing that sucks that is we all seem to judge others based off of our own experiences. If you had my experiences, then your actions to leave religion would not make sense and would be perhaps even immoral-- but if I had your experiences, then NOT leaving religion would be immoral. I think it comes back to what you said about God judging peoples hearts and not their superstitions. I am also of that opinion. I DO believe that good people can come to the conclusion that religion is perhaps more wrong than it is right.

Likewise, an intelligent, FULLY researched individual can come to the conclusion that they have more to gain by staying in their religion and more to lose were they to leave it.