How can someone convert from Atheist to Religious

[robvalue]

It seems to me that our reasons for believing things, and our reasons for taking actions, can be roughly split into logical and emotional. I also think that people can be very bad at noticing the difference. The brain is really good at justifying things to itself. I notice it happening in real time, in my own brain, because I'm looking really closely.

I want to do X.
My brain starts manufacturing logical reasons why I should do X.
I convince myself I'm doing X for logical reasons.

If you're not careful, you simply don't notice this happening. And because you want to do X, there's an incentive for not looking too closely at this manufactured logic, and just assuming it's sound. If you do inspect it, you'll often find it's bogus.

Anyhow, I think religion feeds entirely on the emotional reasons. It actively tries to shut logic out of the equation, even to the point of badmouthing logic and calling it unreliable or even useless "in these matters". In our brains we have a constant battle between logic and emotion, and unless we're analysing our thoughts very carefully, it can hide this war as one cohesive unit.

Am I mad? Probably. But I think that when the emotional side wins the war, it can silence or co-opt the logical side, and convince the person overall. In other words, they now believe for objectively bad reasons; but to them, they are good reasons, because their brain tells them so. The logical side can temporarily win and rip someone into reality and atheism; but then the emotional side keeps fighting and can eventually win and pull them back.