For those of you who have changed your religious views in your adult life (whether adopting a religion, leaving a religion, or switching from one religion to another):

What was the most important reason, or the triggering event, that caused you to do so?

There have been some interesting discussions lately about God, religion, and atheism. But when people are arguing about the "First Cause" or "ontological argument" or "Pascal's Wager", it makes me wonder if they actually started believing because they were convinced by these arguments (or stopped believing because they were convinced the arguments were invalid).

My own answer: I used to be a practicing Christian and am now agnostic. The main thing that took me away from Christianity was what I perceived as a lack of social values: from the history of the church (Inquisition, residential schools etc.) to sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia in the Bible. And the main things that kept me in Christianity for as long as they did were aesthetics (liturgy, ceremony, holy days are very appealing to me) and the stories about Jesus in the gospels.

Happy holy week,

Marion