Most people grow out of the little lies parents tell them about sex, death, and cursing. Most intelligent people I know grew out of religious ideals their parents instilled in them. Not in a sense that they teach their children to curse, or that they switched from Judaism to Christianity, but in a sense that they recognized these things as entirely arbitrary. They'll still teach their children not to curse, and they'll go to the synagogue, but they'll do it exactly because they saw through the arbitrary nature of these ideas, and are no longer controlled by them. Once you see that something you do is completely arbitrary, you become free of it, and once you're free there is no value in rebelling against it. There is no conflict in staying religious and recognizing the arbitrary nature of your belief.
© 2003-2011 Pradeep Gowda