I'm surprised at how difficult it is for skeptics to release faith.

[lindysalsagal]

I keep encountering people who recognize the nonsense if religion, but remain addicted to the cognitive dissonance instead of the religion. The addiction remains. Logic isn't the issue. Loss is.

[Xipe Totec]

1. It is a phenomenon that has been studied

When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World is a classic work of social psychology by Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter which studied a small UFO religion in Chicago called the Seekers that believed in an imminent apocalypse and its coping mechanisms after the event did not occur. Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance can account for the psychological consequences of disconfirmed expectations. One of the first published cases of dissonance was reported in this book.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails

[lindysalsagal]

2. Thanks! People choose delusion. Wow.

[WhiteTara]

3. Fear of the unknown.

[lindysalsagal]

4. Eternal childhood dependency.

A lack of confidence in one's ability to run their life.

[WhiteTara]

5. I never heard that term before

but is an interesting concept.

But I also think that the base emotion of all sentient beings is fear of the unknown. Each moment is unknowable and that produces fear. So, I guess that's where the childhood dependency syndrome would come in. They need someone to tell them what to do and think and feel. I see it as the gaping hole in humans that everyone tries to fill it with something. Religion fills that hole for some, addiction of all kinds for others and some accept that mystery simply is and work to be as authentic as possible while striving to do no harm.

[procon]

6. For those in my family, church is more like a social club.

They enjoy the activities and companionship of other like minded people so there are no conflicts, and no critical thinking is involved. At the same time, they're also backstabbing, catty gossips. My religious prone relatives go to church to show off... look who bought a new car... that designer purse must have cost her $500.

They seem to go through the motions that make them appear to be pious and good god fearing folk, but its like they're just acting out what they might have seen in a movie or some TV show. There's plenty of lip service and cherry picking, but no understanding of the message of their savior, or any effort to live as Jesus taught.

[Tobin S.]

7. The teachings of Jesus are currently incompatible with American society.

We're all about the money. Jesus was a commie.

[marginlized]

8. I found ex-Theists needing to share their trauma

In one 'Free Thinker' group (the A word was not always welcomed), an atheistic world view was not enough. You had to have been Theistic, born and raised, to be a 'real' Free Thinker. Some sub groups formed who shared past religious experiences. Some of these groups were held together by their past trauma. I understand the need to talk through a hurtful past. And I'm not interested in being a voyeur to other's suffering. But it can be exclusionary when that's all the group is about.

And of course discounting other's atheism because its not like your atheism just seems like the same hair splitting dogma that causes people to leave faith groups.