The UU is a good choice as they welcome us and I served on the board of directors for 3 years and even provided a sermon one Sunday on atheism.

You hit the nail on the head! The feeling of belonging is what keeps most people in religion. I have heard jws say that if they had evidence that they were wrong, they would still remain in the cult.

Yes, it is false thinking, but not "completely", as there are soem peopel otu there who simply never havethought of or considered alternatives to the beliefs they were raised with.

However, the vast majority of religious persons so prefer their fantasies over facts and realities.

Personally, I am more inclined to try to get school to once again teach "logical fallacies" as a part of their curriculum. If people to learn to spot flaw in arguments (religious or political), then they are less likely to cling so strongly to religious views. This would not be a "cure all", but it woudl be a step in the right direction.

I agree. I think you are describing the backfire effect. Here is a video that explains how that works.

Yes indeed, and this is a point that the atheist activists like Dawkins and others have made, despite attacks from religionists and even sadly some non believers. What a lot of people get from religion is often not so much the beliefs, which they may not really believe at all, but the other stuff: community activities, the theatre and entertainment of religion, and that feeling of "belonging". It's a serious challenge in pursuing a non religious world. How to replace and substitute these things. Religions are cultural organisms as much as belief systems. There are those who will say that religion is good because of that. I don't agree. The fundamentals of religion are appalling: bad history, awful theology, terrible practise, corrupt activities, harm to people, directly and indirectly due to all those things. What you have raised is one of the most important questions. I do think that with religion in decline in the west, and religious attendance in particular, this aspect of the ongoing momentum of religion is declining.

I think you make a very good point, a lot of church goers come for the community, especially these days. There just aren’t enough humanist places of worship for that secular stream to fill this gulf.

I think you're on to something.

People like to feel accepted..acknowledged..respected..understood. Few like being outcasts...but who wants to fit in to a community obsessed about something you don't believe in...
Right now you are labelled as strange or odd because you declare yourself to be an unbeliever..
Some day people will be labelled weird for believing.....
Even if there was only one other Athiest on the planet...it would still be a preferable community to be a part of..than living a lie and hiding in the longrass...which I believe many millions quietly do.

It has been my experience that people feel that identifying with Christianity is synonymous with being a "good person". No matter how little, if ever, one practices ANY aspect of an individual's religion they are good people for simply identifying with a religion. That connection is iron clad in the minds of a large portion of the Christian population to the point that they cannot conceive that an openly atheist person is not a complete amoral psychopath. In their minds one who does not practice religion is OK but one who does not identify with a religion is evil. That is based on the old, albeit elementary, concept that Christians are responsible for all that is good and non-Christians are responsible for all that is evil. They cannot even CONSIDER not identifying with being a Christian even if they disagreed with every single tenant of Christianity. To say that it is an uphill battle to convince one who identifies as a Christan that being an atheist is OK can be a major understatement. Those folks are not coming around any time soon.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

That's not just in regards to religious beliefs either. People don't give up any beliefs easily, even when confronted with facts.

I agree, for most people belief isn't about truth. If it was the vast majority would already be atheists. To "unconvert", a person may need to break from family, friends, church and even spouse. This rigs the system heavily in favor of religion.

When I present evidence, I am supporting a truth. When they see the evidence I present, they "feel" like I am attacking the world view they thrive in. They connect to this false information through years of echo chamber logic.

Giving people a alternative support system is every bit as important as convincing them of the false claims of religion.

I think it's cultural too. "I am muslim, jewish, catholic" is about your history, your identity and as you say your tribe. In fact there are some who call themselves muslim atheists or jewish atheists..... which describes their cultural roots but don't agree with the dogma. The muslim world would consider me and most of you as 'christian' just because we are grouped together and our cultural background is what is being described.

An interesting post but it leaves me wondering who is the "average person, " the proverbial John or Jane Doe? Perhaps many people experience a sense of belonging akin to what they formerly experienced when they belonged to some religious organization?

"In most people the desire to belong is greater than the desire to understand. Hence the popularity of cults and religious organizations and the lack of the role of reason in human affairs." Thomas Szasz

I believe organised worship was incredibly important in our societal evolution. It was one of the major reasons we evolved the ability to cooperate beyond the scale of communities and tribes. It allowed disparate peoples and cultures to mesh together into the first cities and kingdoms. Yet, in our modern world, I define it as a social appendix. It was useful once, but is archaic now. The only solution to this, is knowledge. We exist in a point where nearly all observable experiences can be defined and labeled from the macro to the micro. Philosophy covers the rest. We need to continue to enlighten those who can be, and hope that those who cant, won't inculculate superstition on the next generation.

Couldn’t have said it any better

It’s kind of like telling a Republican Obama was a great President or an NRA member that gun control is not confiscation of their precious guns. Their ears close up immediately.

They think the same thing... thus, trolls.