u/Best8meme

Indicator: >!"first", "says", "strange". The first is a selection indicator, the second is a homophone indicator, and the third is an anagram indicator..!<

Fodder: >!"Trump", "logs", "1", "euro". We will edit some of this fodder according to our indicator, and make a simple substitution for one.!<

Definition:>!"Private investigator?". This is a stretchy way to describe what the answer is.!<

Because I know someone will say "loser this isnt 10th dentist, everyone on reddit thinks religion is a scam too", I'm going to be clear: that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying I think it's a coping mechanism. Most athiests just think "yeah it's clearly wrong" without empathising and understanding why religious people don't realise it even though it's so obvious. My reasoning is that it's because it is a coping mechanism. With this out of the way...

I think religion is a coping mechanism. For loss, for fears. It's devastating to lose someone you love. The unknown is scary. What happens after death? Religion gives satisfying answers to all: your loved one is going to heaven. God created everything, so if you don't know what's going on, rest assured that he does and he will make sure it goes well for you. And after you die, you go to Heaven because you believe in God. And the guy you hate, he will rot in Hell for eternity. Hell, you could be Hitler and you still go to Heaven for believing in Christ!

You can see why this is so appealing to believe in. This also explains why it's much easier to convert an athiest to be religious, because this security and safety is easy to sell. Whereas, convincing someone religious that there's no God is hard. Other than the sunk-cost fallacy, it's also very hard to make yourself snap back to reality, when you know that reality is painful.

When I asked religious people some questions, I noticed something funny. All of them said they were convinced of God when he "came to them". He came at their lowest and gave them direction. They felt immense comfort once they started believing. I asked why they are so sure he must be real, what tangible evidence they have, and none of them were able to provide any. They just felt it in their hearts. This is the exact response you would expect for someone who wants to keep living in a false reality. And why specifically their God? Why Christianity instead of others? Because it "feels right". After further questions (If your God doesn't intervene with wars, rape etc. because of free will, why pray to him at all since he can't intervene? What about newborns, people with no knowledge of your religion, do they go to Hell? Why would God make it so unfair and let some people have an easier time going to Heaven than others (the family you're born in, where you are born etc.)? Why should finite crime be met with infinite punishment?), there's no answer. Because the belief in the religion never came from true understanding and truly believing. They clung to anything that gave them comfort and hope in their darkest times and didn't bother exercising critical thinking, because that would break the illusion!

I find this very similar to having an AI friend/partner. It provides artificial comfort. It's not real in the slightest and doesn't compare to the truth (ie. real friends), but it's so much easier to do and is way more comforting, so people buy into it. They ignore the red flags because they desperately want to believe it.

For AI, the red flags are more obvious. For religion, not so much. But it's there. Anyone who has read the Bible will know what I mean. It has sexism: 1) Calls women's natural menstruation to be "unclean" in Leviticus 15:19-33, 2) the Book of Job shows how Yahweh murdered Job's family but it was all made right as God replaced them with a new and beautiful wife and daughter, 3) The most damning and most well-known, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet." In 1 Timothy 2:12. It endorses slavery (see https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/pg2pyp/an_extensive_collection_of_bible_verses_which/). Why are they in there? Because back then, sexism and slavery were the normal! The Bible is meant to be comforting, so why would it challenge their beliefs for the better? It's meant to reassure everything they do! I'm sure there are tons of red flags in the other religions too, but I'm not well-read on them so I can't say for sure. For example, I know for Muslims, Prophet Muhammad married Aisha when she was 6.

In some sense, I pity and envy religious people. Pity because they just want the sense of comfort without ever feeling like something is out of their control. But envy too, because they live life free of worry. They act like everything will go their way, and it seems to, because we never hear about the ones where everything didn't go their way. "Ignorance is bliss", after all.

TL;DR: I think religion is a coping mechanism to deal with fears of death, fears of the unknown, etc. It was created specifically to comfort people with the safety of a more powerful and loving God, and that's why they are so willing to look past all the red flags. It's very hard to break out of such a comfortable illusion. Why pursue the truth if it's painful? Why exercise critical thinking and ask challenging questions about your religion when all it will accomplish is break the illusion of comfort? And this is why it contains so many outdated beliefs. It's not the ultimate truth. It's the subjective truth specific in that time period which is no longer applicable now. And yet, so many people still cling to it and look past its flaws, because at its very core, it was designed to target people at their lowest. People grieving. And it's much easier to sell your religion when they want to believe it too.