I think that most of us in our very beginnings were taught the importance of believing in God or Jesus or Allah, or Moses or other very prominent personage or form. I think that we were taught very early on that if we didn’t believe this or that that we would be punished by being sent to hell or a very similar place and that we were taught very early on that if we did believe and that if we were very good believers that we would be favored by being sent to heaven or a like place. I think that we were brainwashed to a greater or lesser extent throughout our childhood and beyond. I think that unless you are below the age of four that it is too late for you or any of us to totally remove that (now) solid imprint from our brains. Oh, we can all try out the newest fad cult or we can all change our spots, so to speak, but at the very end when death comes knocking at our own door I believe that that initial belief system will automatically force itself upon our minds.

I think the reason most believers consistently remember the part about love and forgiveness and fairness and equality for all of believers in their belief system is that is what they want to remember because when they were children they thought like most all children do. They believe in fairies and white knights in shining armor and they believe in good guys always beating the bad guys and they believe that their parents or their caregivers would never have taught them any thing that could ever bring harm to them or to their souls.

I think that the adult mind is always innately filled with the thoughts of the child that prominently and tenaciously resides there. I think that fear and its many forms dictate to us the strategy, which directs our every conscious impulse. I think fear is the key ingredient to all religions and beliefs systems that I’m aware of, bar none.

I think that another reason we remember only the good parts of our religious beliefs or non-beliefs is that we “just want to”. It’s kind of like when somebody dies and everyone says and remembers the “good” things about that person even though that somebody was not all that good and was a pain to be around. Yet the effect of death seems to be able to make an evil villain into a most beloved angel. Well, I do hope that that particular phenomenon of death continues at least until I die.