Good for you it's not easy to challenge your beliefs. Many people are far too stuck in myths to ever consider taking an honest look at their beliefs.
Thank you for your compliment, joelr. I appreciate it.
To be honest, it was very difficult for me to question God, the Bible, and what I believed as a Christian because I was raised in the church and indoctrinated to believe in God no matter what. I was taught to believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that I should never question its authority and accuracy. I was also taught to never question God in any way, and I was shamed by other Christians when I did. So, I quickly learned to keep my doubts and questions to myself while I was growing up. Unfortunately, this mentality stuck with me for the majority of my adult life, and I was a Christian for 30 years. I always felt shame and guilt whenever I questioned God, so I pushed my doubts to the back of my mind and tried to ignore them. But I lived with the nagging feeling that I was ignoring my doubts, and that made me feel sad and confused. Long story short, about a year and a half ago, I finally got to a breaking point where I decided that I wasn't going to ignore my doubts anymore. I decided I was going to face them, come what may, and so I did.
I began to examine and re-examine everything that I believed about God, the Bible, and everything else I believed as a Christian. As I said, it was very difficult for me, but I had my beloved, loving husband to help me get through it. I think of myself as a prime example of how deeply a person can be brainwashed and ensnared by a religion. My belief and faith in God were deeply entrenched in my psyche, and it was almost impossible for me to leave it behind. I compare my emotional dependence on God to being locked in a prison cell, except the door to my cell was open, but I never realized that I could leave whenever I wanted to. Being a devout Christian was detrimental to my emotional, mental, and physical health, and letting go of my faith was the best decision that I've ever made.