Really. Let me give you one small example from my life. I was raised in a conservative Jewish family. My parents encouraged me and my three sisters to read, go to synagogue, and attend services any place where we were invited, and this included Protestant and Catholic churches and the Japanese Buddhist temple. We all read the Torah all the way through every year, and the rest of the Old Testament more than once.
It took me 30 years, but I decided all the religions had it wrong, and I am an atheist.
OTOH My older sister (only 18 months older), after spending a year in Israel after high school on a scholarship, came back to the US, completed her Bachelor of Science in Psych, married an American who also wanted to be more religious, and moved to Israel in the mid 1970s. She is more Orthodox now than anyone we grew up with, as are her 5 children. The main reason for her move was to be among those who believed as strongly as she did (a fringe benefit was the ease of obtaining kosher meat here). One of my nieces visited my apartment and was shocked that I had a Tarot deck - "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live", you know.
And then there are the substantial communities in America of Amish, Mormons, Chasidic Jews, and so on, which stay together and maintain their traditional beliefs.
the revolt into atheism was quite frequently achieved in a climate of almost universal belief, and against the strenuous opposition of parental and other authority figures. Sure, but only a tiny percentage take part in that revolt. The vast majority stick with what they have been taught.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-09-06 10:43 pm (UTC)It took me 30 years, but I decided all the religions had it wrong, and I am an atheist.
OTOH My older sister (only 18 months older), after spending a year in Israel after high school on a scholarship, came back to the US, completed her Bachelor of Science in Psych, married an American who also wanted to be more religious, and moved to Israel in the mid 1970s. She is more Orthodox now than anyone we grew up with, as are her 5 children. The main reason for her move was to be among those who believed as strongly as she did (a fringe benefit was the ease of obtaining kosher meat here). One of my nieces visited my apartment and was shocked that I had a Tarot deck - "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live", you know.
And then there are the substantial communities in America of Amish, Mormons, Chasidic Jews, and so on, which stay together and maintain their traditional beliefs.
the revolt into atheism was quite frequently achieved in a climate of almost universal belief, and against the strenuous opposition of parental and other authority figures.
Sure, but only a tiny percentage take part in that revolt. The vast majority stick with what they have been taught.