I grew up in one of the most secular countries in the world. I was taught in school, by society and even my own parents that religion was bad. It was the cause of so many conflicts, persecution, pedophilia and worst of all oppression of women.

I recently moved abroad and the culture shock have made it hard to make a new social circle. So when I was invited to a church I stepped out of my comfort-zone and went. It was a shocking experience.

The pastor first spoke about some bibel stuff but then he started speaking about personal responsibility, the importance of always improving yourself and that you must aways have goals in life.

I have never heard anyone speak about these things except in books. Self improvement is something that is shunned in my home country. If you get anywhere in life its because of your privilege. Everyone always deserve a trophy for just participating and "it's the thought that counts" even if you fail horribly with whatever you are doing.

After the church-thing I was invited to someones home to talk about todays message. We were a small group and we talked about our long-term and short-term goals in life and what we do to achieve them. Everyone in the group turned out to be quite successful and happy people. They talked about self improvement and apparently everyone had been taking notes (?!?!?!) during church on what they could do to improve themselves. Back home I don't even see people taking notes in university.

While talking they often related back to the bible but they also referenced several philosophers and self-help writers. It turns out they did not gett all their information from one book.

What shocked me the most was that their where plenty of women in both the church and the group. They were just as active participants as the men, they self-reflected and talked about their goals in life. This is something completely new for me.

This whole experience changed my entire view of religion overnight. I must say it was a very pleasant experience if you ignore the praying and speaking in tongues parts.

Edit: While this was my first at hand experience with religion I had already sparked an interest in it after reading How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods.