A few days ago I watched this video by wired about the pyramids in Egypt
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enMPLaB1oEo), and something interesting that the expert talks about is that they know exactly where the stones come from- not only is there clear evidence of quarrying in the immediate vicinity, but the dimensions match and they even have contemporary records describing the movement of stone blocks from quarries across the river to the construction site. (2 day round trip.)
Granted it's a Wired video so she didn't go into an overly extraordinary level of detail, but in any case it reminded me of a lecture I attended about 15 years ago when I went a prospective students/parents night at a prestigious university that I was looking to attend.
As part of the presentation, they had this guy give a lecture on his groundbreaking new theory that the pyramids were actually cast in place, rather than quarried. I thought it was interesting at the time, so when I heard about this quarry stuff in the Wired video, I assumed it must be a relatively recent discovery.
Nope! People have literally known about these quarries since ancient times, and they were confirmed by modern methods in the 1980s. This 'prestigious university' literally just had some crackpot give us his pet theory as an example of the kind of fine, high caliber academics that we could look forward to as part of our education at this institution. ๐
(Btw I did end up attending that university for Computer Science, and the lead professor there taught us that we should try to avoid using if statements.) Anyway there's no point or anything just thought I'd share.
Replying solely as a show of solidarity.
I was raised in a Christian home, home-schooled (which my mom and dad were exceptional at, actually, religious brainwashing aside), then attended Christian college prep schools for my highschool diploma.
I deconverted in my twenties after watching a YouTube video which made avoiding the fact of evolution too unreasonable. The rest pretty quickly unraveled from there. I've spent many nights disassembling newly discovered pockets of disinformation in my brain. It's incredible how clever the little twists of half-truth are... How easily they're manipulated to a premise which seems plausible but is then used to support abject absurdity.
It's no wonder institutional religion and fascism are such good bedfellows.
I can sympathize so much with the unique and often difficult challenges that come with deprogramming - I was raised Mormon. When I broke free, for a long time I struggled with anger at myself for believing charlatans. But the process of untangling your own thoughts from the brainwashing can have unexpected high Libby's, too, as you learn who you want to be on your own terms.