Cameras, microphones and God

[Pyrrho]

Ouch. It was bad enough, but it just got worse! Indeed, religion really is even more harsh than my scenario due to everyone telling you something different

It may sound stupid, but this story I made up seems to have given me some real insight and I see religious theists as victims even more strongly than before. I try to find ways to "get into the head" of theists, having never been one myself.

No, it does not sound stupid at all that this gives you some insight into the ways that some theists think.

Another thing to think about is, if you can remember an example of your parents teaching you something that you believed, that you later on found out was false.  Ask yourself why you believed it, and you should get some insight into why religionists believe their parents who told them about religion.  Still, there is probably much more to the religion situation, as typically it is taught as being of paramount importance, with various built-in methods to try to keep you believing it (guilt, fear, etc.).


We would have an entirely different situation if everyone were raised to think critically and logically, and then after they were adults first hear about religion.  But that is not the way the world is, and so that is why thinking about it that way (which some people seem to do) does not give one an accurate idea of what is going on.  If that were the way the world worked, it would be more straightforward in thinking that religious people were inherently more stupid than nonreligious people.  But that is not the case, as different people are raised differently, so it is not merely a question of innate brain capability.



Edited to add:

One more thing to make your analogy more exact.  Right now, scientists are working on trying to tell what people are thinking from analyzing brain scans.  Seriously.  And they are making some progress on this.  (I sincerely hope that if they perfect it, I will be already dead by then.)  Now, imagine in your story that the supreme leader has perfected this technology, and made it so good that your brain can be scanned constantly, and that you are constantly being monitored for "bad" thoughts.  That makes your story more like Christianity.