Penguin Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 What kind of educational background do you have, pre- and post-conversion to reality? I graduated high school in the United States, took a year of criminal justice in college, and a year of general education in college. I then dropped out due to forced enrollment in the school of hard knocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CutiePie Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I graduated high school not too recently. So I have my H.S diploma and now moving on to being a college student in March. I'm excited for this. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhim Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Heh, strangely I was two years into my doctoral degree in astrophysics when I deconverted (it's typically a 6-7 year stint). I deconverted, and graduated with a Ph.D. a few years later. Edit: Oh, you also wanted to know about pre-deconversion experiences. I converted to Christianity the summer after my freshman year of college. Three years later I graduated with degrees in physics and math. Probably important to mention, since I was still an evangelical Christian at the time. Do not underestimate evangelicals! Highly educated people can belong to this immoral religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Highly educated people can belong to this immoral religion. Yes. Plenty of Christians get higher education and some do so in public schools. They can compartmentalize. It allows a person to be rational about one thing and irrational about something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueScholar Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Interesting Bhim. I was near the end of my bachelors degree when I deconverted. However, I had two associate degrees and many years of work and military experience between my first associates degree and my bachelors degree. So, I had some education but was still a very fundamentalist Christian in many ways. I was an expert at compartmentalising and consolidating beliefs in a way that allowed me to believe the "Christian tale."Had I not been processing some heavy experiences from Afghanistan and had I not been dealing with chronic pain and depression, I doubt my ego would have allowed me to engage in the hubris free self examination that led to my deconversion. Honestly, I am not sure it is all about education or intelligence. I'm not particularly intelligent and I'm certainly not supremely educated. I'm just honest with my self and can admit that "I don't know." Once you cross that threshold, I do not see how one could believe the "Christian story" so to speak. With that, I will admit that higher levels of education appear to correlate with higher levels of disbelief in certain fields. Edit: Just wanted to specify that I was not in Afghanistan as a soldier, but rather, I did medical work as a contractor after getting out of the military. I am sorry for any confusion about my exact role over there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaitingInfinity Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 I did a year of college at a Christian private school before the doubts set in. By the next semester, I was an atheist. I finished out my sophomore year, transferred to the nearby public university, and have been doing very well ever since! Yay education! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yunea Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 I'm studying maths, physics and statistics in university. Started my studies long before my deconversion, in fact I re-felt the big call during them. I did burn out, had a break from my studies, immersed myself in religion during the break, things got bad and I deconverted, and came back to study. I don't think conversion or deconversion has an awful lot to do with intelligence itself. Many smart people are believers, and I do suppose many low iq people aren't. The question some atheists ask - "why do such smart people need that bullsh*t" - is a little wrong phrased I think. Ahh gotta run for my lecture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yunea Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 I'm studying maths, physics and statistics in university. Started my studies long before my deconversion, in fact I re-felt the big call during them. I did burn out, had a break from my studies, immersed myself in religion during the break, things got bad and I deconverted, and came back to study. I don't think conversion or deconversion has an awful lot to do with intelligence itself. Many smart people are believers, and I do suppose many low iq people aren't. The question some atheists ask - "why do such smart people need that bullsh*t" - is a little wrong phrased I think. Ahh gotta run for my lecture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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