Christianity trains people to believe in glaring falsehoods - Shane Almgren

Today I spoke with Shane Almgren, who grew in a fundamentalist evangelical charismatic Christian environment as a missionary kid and eventually became a worship leader himself, but ultimately deconverted as he examined the truth claims of Christianity. We touched on many topics, including: • Admitting that the Christian worldview is not just erroneous but also truly horrifying. • Facing early in life the discrepancy between the teaching that if you ask for something in Jesus' name that he will do it, versus the experience that he doesn't actually do things that you ask for in his name. • Being told by his parents that he could always come to them with his questions and doubts yet being afraid to do so due to the heavy disciplinarian context at home. • Moving to China with his family to become full-time missionaries. • Badly wanting to have an increasing relationship with god but never being able to make it progress to deeper levels like the Christians around him claimed to be experiencing. • Not seeing Christians clearly differentiate between the power of things that are perceived as magic or absurd claims versus the scientific explanation for what actually happened and the psychological dynamics for why were deceived -- especially in the realm of supernatural claims and conspiracy theories. • Realizing that when we were Christians, what we called "knowledge" about the Christian belief system and worldview was actually just blind faith and the uncritical acceptance of our indoctrination and groupthink. • How the church trains your thinking to interpret blind faith as a virtue and a show of piety. • Understanding that Christianity systematically removes kids' thought autonomy. • Going to Christians for help to understand the contradictions in the Bible and finding only that they felt unequipped and intimidated by the task, and ultimately wouldn't get involved in the discussions. • The importance of breaking society from the supposed importance of making firm conclusions on topics for which there is no strong evidence either way. • Seeing the connection between believing in the Christian worldview and being gullible regarding conspiracy theories, and ultimately realizing that Christianity is a bogus system that trains people to believe in glaring falsehoods. Many thanks to Shane for sharing his story and insights! _________________________________________ Connect with Shane: https://www.shanealmgren.com/ https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/... _________________________________________ Shane's interview with Derreck Bennett of Atheologica:    • Why Are Evangelicals Prone to Conspiracies?   _________________________________________ Other interviews by Shane:    • "Conspiracy Christianity: How Evangelical ...      • 460 Conspiracy Christianity - Shane Almgren      • Live Show ~ Conspiracy Christianity      • Are Believers Being Hypnotized?   _________________________________________ Please subscribe to my other channels (many more channels and videos coming soon!) https://linktr.ee/harmonicatheist _________________________________________ Tim may be reached on FB at: harmonictim Or by email at: [email protected] _________________________________________ Your support for my channel, Harmonic Atheist, is very appreciated. One time PayPal (preferred): paypal.me/harmonictim Venmo: @harmonicatheist Zelle email: [email protected] GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-tim-s... Monthly   / harmonicatheist   Thanks! --Tim _________________________________________ Ending music by Eyal Raz, "Friends"    • Friends   _________________________________________