I like to think of it as installing special circuit breakers in my mind. Carl Sagan said that science was not a body of facts to be memorized but a way of thinking. Unfortunately for me, my way of thinking was tinkered with to catch certain phrases. "Evolve" was an obvious one, unless you are talking about a man-made object. You can discuss the evolution of an automobile, but not the evolution of a dung beetle. "Million years ago" was another one. As a result of my creationist training, as soon as I heard or read these key phrases, the circuit breaker in my mind threw and I ignored whatever discussion followed. It didn't matter what followed, no matter how well-documented or supported by evidence, it was wrong. And I knew it was wrong because God said so.

It really put me behind my peers in terms of knowledge and thinking skills. Not my peers in my science class, of course. I was quite the science geek in high school and made top marks. But for my peers in general, it was like learning world history by reading nothing but The Lord of the Rings. I'm saddened by the fact that I would have probably enjoyed a career in science, but I would have to go back to the equivalent of high school and begin my science education all over again because of what I failed to receive the first time.