Pedro de San Patricio
Gold Member
I've been engaged in several dialogues with a rapidly self-radicalizing dissident Catholic for the past several months. She's gotten to the point where she acknowledges that the pope is nuts and the church is wrong about almost everything. Despite this progress, she still adamantly claims to be just as Catholic as always and flies into a rage when the disconnect between her beliefs about much of church dogma being "ancient menfolk retardation" (her words) and most Catholics being "caught in the stupid" (also her words) and her cherished membership in a church she otherwise seems to despise is brought to her attention. As an atheist, I'm totally okay with her leaving. It just puzzles me that she doesn't.
She's not even the first person I've met like that either. I've known many Protestants like that - including even a few secretly atheist pastors. Lots of secular Muslims and almost exclusively atheist Jews as well. None were still actively attending services or nearly as defensive about it as she is though. Why do people do this? What's the point? I mean, you're almost to the finish line when you get to that point. You might as well push it out and abandon religion altogether.
She's not even the first person I've met like that either. I've known many Protestants like that - including even a few secretly atheist pastors. Lots of secular Muslims and almost exclusively atheist Jews as well. None were still actively attending services or nearly as defensive about it as she is though. Why do people do this? What's the point? I mean, you're almost to the finish line when you get to that point. You might as well push it out and abandon religion altogether.