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The Addiction of Religion

How telling people they are special because of their beliefs simply feeds the ego

10 min readApr 20, 2026

The image shows a young woman beneath a tree in a green pasture. She has her hands clasped in front of her, her head bowed, and appears to be in prayer. — Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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I wasn’t raised religious. Well not in the usual sense anyway. My mom was inactive Mormon (she’s VERY active now, sadly), my dad is a missionary for the church of atheism. My step-dad is Lutheran, my step-mom until I was 11 was Jewish and my step-mom after that was a recovering Catholic.

I attended a private Hebrew school while my dad was married to the Jewish woman. But we were a tradition-only type of family. There were prayers said on Shabbat and the high holy days, but it wasn’t like we were encouraged to speak directly to God.

My dad had custody of my sister and me starting when I was about three. When he was going through his divorce from his Jewish wife, he finally agreed to let me live with my mom. It was supposed to be short term, but I had a stronger bond with my mom, so I never went “home”. This was both a blessing and a curse.

With my dad, I lived in a very liberal state. With my mom it was the opposite. I was 11. I didn’t know and/or care about the politics, but it shaped my life in ways I could not have ever understood until I was much older.

I am always so glad to hear from formerly religious people who share their stories. Thank you for writing this, and may it spread far and wide to anyone who needs to hear this lesson. While comforting, these environments do so much damage to their followers and to all the rest of us.

I was raised religious. While I have rejected much of the dogma of my conservative upbringing, I still hold value in parts of the teachings of Jesus that were about love, even if I don't trust organized religion's ability to interpret them.