The religious zealot

[Fendon]

Thanks guys It's a scary prospect. I wonder what makes someone tend to this kind of extreme position. I guess a mixture of how they think and how hard they get indoctrinated. I suppose someone who turns religious in later life could become a zealot, but I would imagine the percentage would be lower than those fed it from birth. Do you reckon?

I don't know, I'd hate to speculate on this, but I'm going to anyway. I've always thought that religion must have some sort of 'tunnel-vision' effect on religious zealots. They appear to have spent their lives fixated on one, very stubborn belief that the possibility of a God not existing or their God not being the 'right' God is totally devastating. Zealotry, to me appears to be desperate measures to salvage what they've always believed to be true. That's an aspect of zealotry we have to sympathize with, really; everything they've ever lived for is wrong. I can't even begin to imagine the psychological trauma that comes with that discovery. Can you?

As frustrating as it is for Atheists, ironically zealotry could be the only thing that 'saves' these people. Suppose the joke's on us, really.