Some theists are just to far gone

[robvalue]

I have to sympathise with people who are brought up being told a particular religion is simply true, and they experience almost no one who doesn't believe the same thing. I would not think that person dumb for falling in line. After all, they are relying on their parents, and to a lesser extent society at large, to tell them everything they need to know when their minds are a blank slate. They haven't had the chance to form their own educated opinions about how the world works, or have the critical thinking skills in place to challenge what is being fed to them.

I feel very sorry for them, I view them as victims. Their minds have been violated, sometimes so hard that they can never let go of all that stuff. It's shocking: spending the whole of the one life we know for sure we have believing it's nothing but a warm up or some sort of twisted test. It takes a lot of courage to consider that you have been fed bullshit by your parents your whole life. That is what the theists of today must decide for themselves now they have the opportunity to openly discuss things such as on this forum. Are they prepared to accept that possibility or not? They have the opportunity for this kind of discussion more than ever before.

My hope is that an insular environment is going to be harder and harder to maintain. The rise of atheism, along with the Internet, gives me hope. It appears the newer generations are less and less willing to swallow the pills now. Sickeningly, where religion is enforced not only by societal threats but by actual death threats, it's going to take a long time and a lot of hard work before being even openly atheist is something anyone could consider in that environment. Although I do wonder if their brutal "education" tactics are producing more and more closet atheists, who will one day unite, as their environment is slowly getting a little less insular via the Internet. I hope so.

I would like to think no one is so far gone that they could never come round to reason. But I have to be honest, I think a lot of people are.