Quote Originally Posted by KevinFinnerty
Why exactly did you choose the religion that you adhere to? In other words, why have you chosen to follow Christianity instead of Judaism, or Judaism instead of Islam, etc.?
I'm an atheist but like 95% of atheists I was raised in a religious background (in my case, evangelical Christianity) and used to believe in god. I spent five years as an agnostic, which I see as a period of transition people go through before they accept full atheism. It's a logical process to go from theism to atheism because it's based upon the evaluation of logic, reasoning, and evidence. It's blind to cultural bias. However, my point is theists cannot say the same. Christians would be Hindus if they were born in India and Muslims would be Mormons with those silly magic underpants if they were born in Salt Lake City. They believe what they believe because of their emotions shaped by their cultural biases. It's easily anticipated someone will say "But that's not true, what about people who switch religions?" Same difference, the choices are made out of emotion and not rationality.

Oneironaut:
It makes good evolutionary sense for children to believe what their parents say. If children did not have this built-in willingness to accept what their parents say, they would be more likely to disregard their parents when they are being warned of a real danger. When a parent says "Watch out, there's a tiger!" or "Don't touch that flame!" or "There's a cliff behind that bush!", it's a good idea for the child to simply believe their parents because they haven't had enough experience with the world to know what's dangerous and what's not.
Yes! And I'm always reminded of how Richard Dawkins worded it: you can't have children being skeptical to stay away from crocodiles.