Self-delusion. If everyone around you from the moment you can remember speaks about this something as if it were a fact, you unconsciously accept ti as a "fact." And if your well-being is attached to that fact, then the bond is even stronger, sort of like a security blanket.
I never had that experience, didn't grow up Christian or anything. Agnostic at most, then firmly Atheist
I can't say that I could ever be an atheist, as that would presuppose I know what God is (not). I would be immensely happy if someone were to enlighten me as to what God is. But that's too much to ask.
I didn't have your religious education and for me it got pretty simple: God was what I heard other people say God was, and that didn't exist. Those that believed were naive, wishful or both.
I would be immensely happy if someone were to enlighten me as to what God is. But that's too much to ask.
You heard some of my thoughts on the topic a month or so back, and bit my head off, so it's gonna have to be someone else if it happens. :)