I am always flabbergasted by the amount of people going as adults from secular world views to religious ones, but of course there are people of all walks of life and all predilections. Anything is within the realm of possibility.
But one of the biggest trends I feel, and this is evidenced to me by some of the top posts on the exatheist subreddit (Yes it is exists) is that atheism is too "depressing".
Let's actually address this-- If you are in the worldview that there is an afterlife, and this existence is a mere fragment of the infinity that is to come, then trying to swallow the cold reality that this one shot is all we got is a gut punch that is too much for some.
This leads me to believe, that if you want to help somebody leave religion, then we have to do more work on embracing the process of grief and being comfortable with this existential nightmare that is our existence.
Somewhere along the line, for whatever reason, theists or whatever variety of believer cannot bear the thought of such a simple existence and choose to cope with the thought of a heave, afterlife, and god.
People believe all things for all sorts of reasons-- whether they believe it is rationality, or emotional, or simply a societal upbringing-- and people change beliefs for all sorts of reasons to.
I do think that trying to approach deconversion from a mere logic and historical deconstruction of the major world religions, not everybody will be moved. How would you address the cope that religion provides, and locks believers in place?
-Forever Sophist
But one of the biggest trends I feel, and this is evidenced to me by some of the top posts on the exatheist subreddit (Yes it is exists) is that atheism is too "depressing".
Let's actually address this-- If you are in the worldview that there is an afterlife, and this existence is a mere fragment of the infinity that is to come, then trying to swallow the cold reality that this one shot is all we got is a gut punch that is too much for some.
This leads me to believe, that if you want to help somebody leave religion, then we have to do more work on embracing the process of grief and being comfortable with this existential nightmare that is our existence.
Somewhere along the line, for whatever reason, theists or whatever variety of believer cannot bear the thought of such a simple existence and choose to cope with the thought of a heave, afterlife, and god.
People believe all things for all sorts of reasons-- whether they believe it is rationality, or emotional, or simply a societal upbringing-- and people change beliefs for all sorts of reasons to.
I do think that trying to approach deconversion from a mere logic and historical deconstruction of the major world religions, not everybody will be moved. How would you address the cope that religion provides, and locks believers in place?
-Forever Sophist
Ex-believer. Secular philosopher. Forever Sophist
I am on YouTube! 
“Maybe, this lack of purpose, lack of innate meaning, and lack of cosmological grandeur is perhaps the most liberating thing we can enjoy as humans.”
I am on YouTube! “Maybe, this lack of purpose, lack of innate meaning, and lack of cosmological grandeur is perhaps the most liberating thing we can enjoy as humans.”
