(September 9, 2015 at 9:17 pm)Knight000 Wrote: Does anyone know of a person or even a story of a person who has been "guilt tripped" into any religion by a follower, and them sticking to that religion
It's a theory of mine that there are only two ways of someone legitimately joining a religion.
1: If they are born into the religion (grew up with both parents avidly believing/urging child to participate)
2: They are facing a difficult time in their life (e.g. an old man facing death, an abuse victim of any kind)
Furthermore, I believe that religion, before modern society was a kind of psychologist in that it helped people with a wide range of concerns.
This is why I want to know: has anyone ever legitimately joined a religion because of a threat?
Depends on what you mean by 'joining a religion'.
If you mean that they accept the tenets of the religion as being true, then no.
Belief is functionally defined by cognitive scientists as, the psychological state in which one accepts a premise or proposition as being true.
People accept a premise or proposition as being true because they are convinced. They can be convinced for good reasons or they can be convinced by bad reasons.
I just can't imagine a person legitimately accepting all the ridiculous premises and propositions that religions make as being true, simply based on guilt or threat.
As others have said, they may go through the motions to cover their ass.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
