I am really convinced now that religious believers cannot..

[edcantor]

comprehend a world without their supernatural creator or spiritual guide imaginary friend.

They talk about atheism as a "religion". They talk about events, good and bad, where they are accompanied by that "supernatural creator or spiritual guide imaginary friend".

They carry it around like a small child carries a Teddy Bear.

Asking them to imagine a world that is caused by natural forces, without their imaginary friend having anything to do with it? It's like asking a 3 year old to give up the Teddy Bear and start doing geometry.

[Gore1FL]

1. Except that over time

small children put down their teddy bears and learn Geometry.

Believers often carry the analogous teddy bears to their grave.

[edcantor]

2. Yes, I see that, sadly! Most 3 year old kids do eventually learn

believers in their magic guy, not so much.

[Warpy]

7. Well, there's always hope

Both my parents died unbelievers after long lifetimes of teddy bear toting. My mother realized it was all a big scam when she finally read the bible in her 70s. I don't know what led to my dad's awakening, he just told me he no longer believed "any of that Sunday school crap" on his deathbed, and I wasn't about to grill him over it. I just reminded him that I hadn't believed a word of it for a long time and he had plenty of other company and divine thunderbolts seemed to be in short supply.

All I talked to him about was my own NDE and what he was likely to experience toward the end. That helped a lot, I think, and the end was silent and peaceful, without fear of judgment by a vengeful god.

People who wanted visits from hospital chaplains were a tiny minority in my own experience, leading me to think that Teddy has been discarded by more grownups than are willing to admit it.

[cleanhippie]

3. Scary, isn't it?

[cynatnite]

4. I don't think it's so much as can't as it is won't...

They refuse to consider it. It's a conscious choice.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. "They refuse to consider it. It's a conscious choice"

That's what they mean when they say 'Faith' -- a conscious choice not to consider that they may be wrong.

It's what gets them into heaven.

It's their highest virtue.

Their whole life is built (proudly) around refusing to consider anything but what their preacher tells them.

[Ron Obvious]

5. They think differently in many ways...

They seem to think believing in something is something you can chose to do, seeing as to how often I've had to counter the whole "but wouldn't you rather..." and "I prefer hope" canards in real life.

They also seem unclear that "I don't know" is a perfectly valid answer to some questions. I frankly don't know what caused the Big Bang or if the question "What came before?" is even valid. I do know, however, that nothing is intrinsically "unknowable" and that saying "God did it" is worse than saying "I don't know" because it means you've stopped looking for the answer or you don't care.

[Ninjaneer]

8. I think the main problem comes from

(and I speak from personal experience, back when I was a theist) thinking that logic and reason are merely an "option" to figure out what's out there. You see that tired old Pony trotted out time and time again in the form of "other ways of knowing" in the religion forum. This way of thinking holds logic and religion in two different spheres. I became an atheist within a month of when I realized you could/should apply logic to religion. The bullshit crumbled quickly.

[ScottLand]

9. I've long said the only thing I REALLY believe is that the

existence of a god isn't as relevant as the belief in the existence of god. If there were no god, people would still believe there was because that's what gives them the hope they need. It gives them the assurance that good will prevail and that death is not the end. It doesn't mean there is a god - believing it doesn't make it so.

People are brought up in this belief system, and if you've always believed it, it seems to you that it MUST be true.