I thought it was not meant to be taken literally, like these are classic morality stories we can all learn from, traditional if a bit weird. Then I realized everyone took it very seriously, and that moment was like noticing everyone around me was a zombie or something. I started to have my first panic attack I think, as it felt dangerous to be around a bunch of people who don’t perceive the same reality as I do. Not in a logical way but it triggered my fight or flight response. I left. Then uh, I made lots of excuses to not go back to church. It helped that my parents weren’t super committed and didn’t really fight me on it. So essentially I never truly believed but I thought everyone else was just like me, then I realized that was very much not the case.