I have an anecdote, but my situation is probably not representative. I started out as an evolution-accepting theist who didn’t belong to an organized church. I’m pretty sure I believed instead of belief in belief, but since my beliefs didn’t match those of any organized religion, I didn’t have a community of other believers around me.
I was converted to atheism by watching atheist youtube videos, to which I was introduced by a series mocking creationists. When I realized that the smartest, most science-savvy commentators were atheists offering good arguments for atheism, I converted over a period of a month or two. The key arguments for me were that my personal religious experiences were understood to be my own brain and not necessarily God, and that the burden of proof was on theists.
I’m pretty sure I believed instead of belief in belief, but since my beliefs didn’t match those of any organized religion, I didn’t have a community of other believers around me.
I’ve encountered a lot of theists whose beliefs didn’t match those of any organized religion. They tend to assume their religious outlook is exceptional or unusual (when I first started seriously investigating people’s religious beliefs, it astonished me how little real communication most people have about their beliefs with people outside a very small circle,) but they tend to form fairly similar beliefs. I would definitely not say that they’re any less prone to belief in belief than theists in organized sects; if anything, I think they’re more so, because they tend to let go of those beliefs that are most falsifiable.
My beliefs were cobbled together from SF and fantasy novels; they were Scientology-style weird. They were also falsifiable and falsified themselves, and the atheist videos made me stop suppressing the cognitive dissonance.
I have an anecdote, but my situation is probably not representative. I started out as an evolution-accepting theist who didn’t belong to an organized church. I’m pretty sure I believed instead of belief in belief, but since my beliefs didn’t match those of any organized religion, I didn’t have a community of other believers around me.
I was converted to atheism by watching atheist youtube videos, to which I was introduced by a series mocking creationists. When I realized that the smartest, most science-savvy commentators were atheists offering good arguments for atheism, I converted over a period of a month or two. The key arguments for me were that my personal religious experiences were understood to be my own brain and not necessarily God, and that the burden of proof was on theists.
I’ve encountered a lot of theists whose beliefs didn’t match those of any organized religion. They tend to assume their religious outlook is exceptional or unusual (when I first started seriously investigating people’s religious beliefs, it astonished me how little real communication most people have about their beliefs with people outside a very small circle,) but they tend to form fairly similar beliefs. I would definitely not say that they’re any less prone to belief in belief than theists in organized sects; if anything, I think they’re more so, because they tend to let go of those beliefs that are most falsifiable.
My beliefs were cobbled together from SF and fantasy novels; they were Scientology-style weird. They were also falsifiable and falsified themselves, and the atheist videos made me stop suppressing the cognitive dissonance.