Comment by doubtingSteve on December 15, 2009 at 8:34am

I would like to agree, but I think humans feel the need for a religion to explain away the bugaboos and unknowns. And once entrenched in those religious beliefs, even when presented scientific data to overturn a long held religious belief, they will choose the religious explanation over the facts because it is more comforting and less controversial (in the eyes of the immediate religious community they live in). How else to explain the evangelical movement in America?

Comment by Rick Watts on December 15, 2009 at 9:46am

Oh, I say give it time.. like a few or many more generations, people will come to their senses eventually although there will probably remain some pockets of hard-core fundamentalists for a time.

Comment by Doug Reardon on December 15, 2009 at 9:51am

A friend of mine who was an atheist while we were growing up, returned to his catholic roots when he was in his twenties and is now a theologian and an apologist for the catholic faith . I don't understand how and he can't say why, other than talk about "feelings"

Comment by S S Tragus on December 15, 2009 at 11:29am

I think some people just find living as atheists too difficult. In a world mostly dominated by religion, so much of daily life -- institutions, traditions, rituals, rites of passage, charities, community functions, laws, political systems, concepts of identity, including nationhood -- is suffused with religious thought.

Becoming atheist can result in a very real loss of community. Friends may drop away. Family gatherings can become tense and awkward. Intimate relationships may break apart. And, especially for those who really want to live good lives, lives filled with compassion, now have to think for themselves to work through issues as there is no longer an ultimate authority to lay it all out for them -- these things are wrong, these are questionable, these are good and right, etc.. The world is truly colourful, not black and white, and right and wrong are not static, but can change depending upon context. I think some people, not strong enough to face all these things and not willing to do the hard thinking, revert back to the comforts of religion. Though The Matrix story makes use of a good deal of religious, even Christological, imagery, it provides a good analogy -- atheists who go back to religion are like those who take the blue pill so they can go back into the matrix, into more comfortable, mundane, unthinking, 'normal' lives.

Comment by Rick Watts on December 15, 2009 at 12:13pm

Yeah, thanks S S, most of the people I know, even most of my relatives are pretty indifferent to religion or lack thereof. Years ago I was into a Pentecostal church for a while and people told me "that's not you". I did finally drop out though and I think the effects are pretty much worn off by now.

Comment by Galen on December 15, 2009 at 5:11pm

@S S Tragus - I don't see where it's a choice. You either believe or you don't, and if you don't believe but still go through the motions as if you do, then that's living a pretty big lie. Even if I found life as an atheist too difficult, that would just be too bad. I couldn't change it.

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