The problem as I see it though is that if a religious mindset is inculcated from a very early age, reasoning your way out of it is made so much more difficult. I was watching The Wright Stuff a couple of weeks ago and Wrighty labelled himself a lapsed Catholic, as he has done a number of times in the past. (He had a Catholic education, which he refers to from time to time if the subject arises). I don't know his views on God; if I had to put my money anywhere I would say that he probably regards himself, as so many do, as an agnostic in the popular sense. But the lapsed Catholic business to me is very strange. It seems to indicate that Catholicism still has some grip, some claim. I would have thought that you're either Catholic or not; if you're not, you're not and that's all there is to it. If you don't believe in and don't adhere to Catholic dogma and doctrine you're not a Catholic no matter what you may have been and done and believed in the past. Regarding yourself as a lapsed Catholic strikes me as handing too much to Catholicism; it's giving it still some influence over and purchase on your life, surely.
This is all easy for me to say; I've never been a believer in my life, not even for five minutes, so have never had any beliefs of that kind to lose. I've read and heard enough however to know that in some cases, when people do lose religious beliefs in which they've been raised, it can be a horrible business that really messes people up for a long time.
