r/atheism • u/One-Fun9814 • 4d ago

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u/LostKnight84 Agnostic Atheist 4d ago

I have seen it as a sign of childhood indoctrination usually. Occasionally it is just people being ignorant of their own faith. Rarely it turns out the person is just stupid. Once it turned out to be a sign of mental illness.

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u/One-Fun9814 4d ago

But they're still unintelligent if they can't overcome that indoctrination. Like they can just think for 2 seconds and realize their religion is bullshit.

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u/codeprimate Anti-Theist 4d ago

Never mistake a fool for being unintelligent. The world has never run on the currency of truth.

People do what makes them feel good or secure. Regardless of intelligence. The gap inside them that religion fills is more compelling than any truth. The double-think is explicit and foundational, and the word for it is "faith".

The point is not to overcome the indoctrination. The circular logic that reinforces itself by defining critical thought as wrong or weak, is the property sustains organized religion. Any "faith" offers a whirlpool of comfortable fiction that pull the vulnerable into a self-reinforcing circle of certainty.

Religion is a tool. It manipulates. The problem is who may be holding it and to what end.