/lit/ - Literature

I never understood how people can get into religion. I never even read Harris or Dawkins or anyone else associated with nu-atheism; being atheist (or at least agnostic) just seems to be the reasonable thing to do, and I don't really need a book to persuade me of this fact. If anything I tried to read books trying to persuade you to convert to Christianity and they all appealed to pseudo-mystic experiences (pray, feel God's presence, and other kinds of self-suggestion) or sketchy historical "evidence" concerning prophecy to persuade you that whoever wrote certain books of the Bible really foresaw the future. (And even if that were true, it's quite a leap of logic to imply that everything written in the Bible is true just because some prophecies came to pass. There might be an explanation for foresight which does not involve God, assuming such a supernatural power really exists.)

Why would anyone put some much trust into some old book written by who knows who? I have more respect for Muslims since at least they tend to read the Koran in its original Arabic whereas most Christians don't even bother to learn Hebrew or Koine Greek, and they read their "holy" books through the lens of some translator who will interpret the text for them, thus making their contact with the supposed books of God even more filtered. And how do you even choose among the several religions on offer in the marketplace? Why pick Christianity over Hinduism? Why be a Lutheran rather than a Calvinist? There seems to be no basis for such decisions except the influence of your family environment or whatever fad is trending in society at large.