Anonymous B joined in and replied with this 2 years ago, 7 minutes later[^][v]#1,284,420
If you take it as face value that the adherents literally believe the mythology, it would seem that way. Nothing surprising about it. Adults like to join communities, and pass down a social structure to their children.
The secular world has rape too. If it was actually rape, that could be part of the appeal. If you can understand that the leader would rape, it shouldn't be hard to understand why sexually aggressive people would feel at home in a similar culture.
Anonymous C replied with this 2 years ago, 2 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,284,440
Honestly, the answer is not complicated. It's a combination of:
A) low intelligence
B) having limited to no moral compass (being high in sociopathic tendencies)
Most of the people you described have both traits. But having all of (A) and none of (B) or vice-versa can produce indistinguishable results.
The religion stands in for a moral compass. It, in fact, is one. Regardless of if someone has their own moral compass, it doesn't matter if they are of sufficiently low intelligence because their beliefs can be unseated with ease.
Most people that convert as adults were already religious. Christian to Muslim to die-hard atheist to new age to Christian again. Or any similar permutation.
This isn't limited to your store-bought name-brand religions. Take your run-of-the-mill transphobic middle-aged woman. This is the picture of someone that is clearly not very intelligent just by virtue of her beliefs. This is the picture of someone that is liable to convert to equally extreme beliefs in any direction, just as someone raised as a fundamentalist Christian.
Now let's add in a bit of (B) from above. Someone like this would have no qualms about throwing out their belief system and replacing it, if it someone how benefited them. Add in a bit more of (B) and you end up with someone who further has no qualms about claiming to have done so just for their own self-interests. Now we're getting into a picture where such a person would simply claim to have adopted the religion of whomever is providing the gold.
It's the same story again and again. The vast majority of conversions happen in the context of a relationship, often in a context where there are discrepancies in status, wealth, or respect. Depending on the A-B balance these discrepancies may or may not be real and the conversion just as well.
> Most people that convert as adults were already religious. Christian to Muslim to die-hard atheist to new age to Christian again. Or any similar permutation. > die-hard atheist
By listing that with other religions, I've implied something. Can you guess?
Anonymous B replied with this 2 years ago, 3 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,284,459
@previous (C)
Cognitive errors are prevalent in the population, and clearly you have built up a weltanschauung on false axioms, or didn't recognize a fallacy when considering your epistemological beliefs.
Every epistemologist in good standing would attest that certain knowledge is possible, and very easy in our universe. Some people are under the mistaken impression it is not, because though certain knowledge is possible, not everyone has it about everything of course.
Did you get mono when class was covering epistemology? There is an easy answer here.
Anonymous C replied with this 2 years ago, 1 minute later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,284,462
@1,284,459 (B)
There are limits to what you can conclude in any formal system. Much more so when we talk about reality. Anyone who takes their beliefs too seriously, no matter what that may be, is a moron. Thanks.
Anonymous B replied with this 2 years ago, 4 minutes later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,284,478
@previous (Indie the Grate)
Crybully, lurking so close,
Cleverly combing my words, morose.
Creeping, following, consuming my thoughts,
Creating chaos with every comment he's brought.
Crafty and cunning, he cloaks his true intent,
Carefully calculating, leaving me bent.
Concocting chaos, causing me strife,
Constantly creep in the shadows of my online life.
Crybully, cowardly and cruel,
Choking on words, a poisonous fuel.
Curse his insidious, cowardly ways,
Clinging to me like an unshakable haze.
Careful now, for he cannot be ignored,
Caught in his web, my spirit is floored.
Confront this crybully, with courage and might,
Cast away his darkness, bring forth the light.
Crybully, you may try to haunt me with your jest,
But I'll rise above your cowardice, for I am my own bequest.
Father Dave !RsSxeehGwc joined in and replied with this 2 years ago, 4 hours later, 8 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,284,523
This topic (why would adults convert?) presupposes that there is categorically no God. Since that is an unknowable position, all its consequent conclusions collapse.
It is also not a question of education or intelligence. People with infinitely greater intelligence than anyone here have converted in their adult years. Some of the smartest people I know are profoundly spiritual and/or religious. By contrast, some of the dumbest people I know are militant atheists.
tteh !MemesToDNA joined in and replied with this 2 years ago, 36 minutes later, 8 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,284,524
@previous (Father Dave !RsSxeehGwc) > By contrast, some of the dumbest people I know are militant atheists.
Please don't talk about Killer Lettuce like that. He's a good lad.
tteh !MemesToDNA double-posted this 2 years ago, 10 minutes later, 8 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,284,525
@OP
I don't think it's surprising or strange that people would become religious as adults, whether in the search for meaning or to find a sense of community/belonging. (Or just rational conviction - maybe they're convinced of the existence of God by argument.)
I do find the "zeal of the convert" to be an odd phenomenon, though, but not the conversion itself.
Father Dave !RsSxeehGwc replied with this 2 years ago, 8 minutes later, 9 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,284,528
Anon H read Camus and Feuerbach when he was 16 years old. His contemporaries were playing football and kissing girls. Anon H knew he'd be the winner one day.