Robert Bradbury wrote:
>Its fascinating to me to observe what happens in my mind when
>I enter a church. All kinds of old feelings, beliefs, memories
>come bubbling up from the basement of my mind. I normally
>rarely think about these things, but I have no doubt that
>many of my early beliefs (Catholic) are still part of my
>programming. As the years go by, probably because I don't
>think about them much, the memories do seem to fade.
The same things happen to me as well. Of course I go to churches sometimes to bring out this effect. What I then do is acknowledge what it is as just ignorance and the not wanting to know the truth for fear of loosing a comfortable position of belief. I think bring up feelings of pity and associate that with the feelings and memories brought up by being at the church. What happens more and more is when I go to a church or talk with a Christian who is trying to persuade me I just pity him the way he does me. Eventually that will be my only reaction. Now you may bring up concerns about suppression and its effects on the subconscious but I take care of that too. I re-associate my original thoughts with piety to my parents who didn't know any better. It's not denial. After all, they don't know any better. :-)