On the lunacy of free will

[Spongebob]

The reality is that the vast majority of people accept the form of religion handed to them by their parents because in many cultures and families great pressure is placed on them to accept this.  In most cases it comes in the form of indoctrination and sometimes even brainwashing.  A significant percentage of people stray from the religion they were indoctrinated into but not by far, moving from one protestant Christian religion to another or maybe Catholic to protestant.  Fewer still move between Jewish - Christianity - Islam or Hinduism (name whatever major religion).  An even smaller number join small cults.  And the smallest number reject religion altogether.  Atheists are generally considered the least trustworthy people in the US, based on broad polls.  Absolutely no one makes this move out of a desire to be popular or considered eclectic in any way.  Only a genuinely stupid person would believe this.  And only a tiny sliver of atheists walk around with that knowledge being public.  A great many intentionally keep this hidden.  If anything, most atheists make this move reluctantly and only after trying for years or even decades to make it work within whatever religious modality they were taught to believe.  I've been personally close to only a small handful of open atheists in my life, but I've known perhaps 10 or 20 times that many who's beliefs aligned with my own about 98% yet they continued to keep up the façade of religious belief out of a desire to fit in with everyone else.  That is deeply disturbing.

So why in the world would Ahriman believe that atheists just want to be "different"?