To reject heaven and accept atheism—is not merely about science, facts, beliefs, etc
Again, I’ll reiterate that religion, in practice, isn’t generally about scientific claims or facts or beliefs (in the sense of internal predictive models) either. It’s usually about identification with a group.
That doesn’t make it okay, but it does mean that you’re not necessarily abandoning a particular internal predictive model when you abandon a religion.
Sometimes it’s also about fear of divine punishment if you stop believing. I’m not the only one who was terrified of this every time I started doubting God’s existence. This notion of thought crimes certainly helps keep people from thinking too hard about ideas which don’t fit into their religious worldview.
(Maybe I’m a special case since I was never very good at identifying with groups, but the stories of other former Christians suggest that many of them had the same worries whenever they were about to commit a thought crime.)
Again, I’ll reiterate that religion, in practice, isn’t generally about scientific claims or facts or beliefs (in the sense of internal predictive models) either. It’s usually about identification with a group.
That doesn’t make it okay, but it does mean that you’re not necessarily abandoning a particular internal predictive model when you abandon a religion.
Sometimes it’s also about fear of divine punishment if you stop believing. I’m not the only one who was terrified of this every time I started doubting God’s existence. This notion of thought crimes certainly helps keep people from thinking too hard about ideas which don’t fit into their religious worldview.
(Maybe I’m a special case since I was never very good at identifying with groups, but the stories of other former Christians suggest that many of them had the same worries whenever they were about to commit a thought crime.)