If people were introduced to religion as an adult...?

Question

...do you think most people would believe?

Or do you think teachings children about religion from the very beginning is why most people still believe?

Answer 1

That's a good question. If you had never actually experienced religion before, you'd have a clean slate...no positive or negative past experiences. I know some people who have become "Born Again" as adults, but they were religious as children and grew away from the church, then returned to become more fanatical and creepy than ever.
I would say it depends on the religion and on the person's life experiences, to be perfectly honest. People are more likely to accept faiths that are more in line with their existing philosophies, which are shaped in part by their life experiences.

Answer 2

wow...good question....i believe that religion is taught at a young age because of the fact that kids are much more easily influenced- i have heard many people admit this, mainly christians-and i do believe that that is why most people still follow their religion, whatever it may be...i think that if somebody grew up with no concept of religion and were to be told the story of creation and the resurrection, all that "good" stuff, then they would laugh, because it really, as an adult, sounds rediculous, like a fairy tale or a fable (note that many other religions would also sound strange and rediculous)

Answer 3

Wow, Towlie, just wow. You mean that 92% population that is christian in the bible belt, over half of them do not take their kids to church or even talk about God?

Not as likely. I'm sure some still would.

Evelyn Waugh writes the classic story of an adult reading the Bible for the first time, in his case, Randolph Churchill, son of Winston. From a November 1944 letter to Nancy Mitford:

In the hope of keeping him quiet for a few hours Freddy & I have bet Randolph 20[pounds sterling] that he cannot read the whole Bible in a fortnight. It would have been worth it at the price. Unhappily it has not had the result we hoped. He has never read any of it before and is hideously excited; keeps reading quotations aloud `I say I bet you didn't know this came in the Bible "bring down my grey hairs in sorrow to the grave'" or merely slapping his side & chortling `God, isn't God a shіt!'

Answer 4

Interesting that the Soviet Union fell after over 70 years of official "atheist". The children (and parents and even some grandparents) were raised with no religious education or training about God. In fact, they were encourged to renounce and ridicule such ideas. Yet within five years of the fall of communism and the lifting of the ban on religion, surveys showed that roughly 70% of the Russian people had some kind of a faith or belief in God. The number as ahead of the numbers of Western Europe, and nearly equal with the USA.

So apparently not being raised in a religion did little to keep them from converting to one as adults.

Answer 5

Those adults who were desperately lonely or alcoholics or stupid still would believe. Others are scared not to believe in case they go to hell. I think if you took hell out of the picture many would cease to believe.

Answer 6

I grew up being taught about God, and I was baptized when I was younger. But as I became an adult, there has been nothing that can disprove my beliefs of the fact that God is real

When I first met my husband, he was Jewish but didn't really practice it, except Hannakuk. And he told me he wasn't going to convert. I was ok with that, but said I would still continue with my beliefs. He ended up coming with me to church and eventually was baptized a couple weeks before we got married.

Jesus can reach anyone, at any point in their lives.

Answer 7

If God had chosen to take one of my children at an early age, I would not have wanted to risk their eternal souls by waiting to expose them to the Christian faith.
To the contrary, I teach in a Christian school so that kids can learn the truth of God, consider the beliefs contrary to it and form a personal and solid faith. That does not take in every child's life, but again, we are not willing to risk that.

Answer 8

Definitely they believe bc they were brainwashed as kids. No rational adult would, in my opinion, take on a religious faith. Too unsupportable

Answer 9

Hardly. Only a complete and total idiot would agree that sex outside of marriage is wrong. Sex outside of marriage is necessity. It's the height of stupidity to marry someone with whom you've yet to have sex. You would essentially be marrying someone without one clue as to whether you are sexually compatible with each other.

Not only that, only an utter fool would want to marry a virgin in the first place. Perhaps it's just me, but when it comes to sex, I prefer to have it with someone who REALLY knows what they are doing. I've no interest whatsoever in raising someone who is sexually still a child, due to their virginity.

Answer 10

Most people are converted as adults.