I mean, is it just me, or is anyone else noticing that those that turn to God actually have weak minds? I don't mean weak as in will-power or mental clarity, but weak as in their life is hanging on the line (whether they know it or not), and they have to seek God, or God (and entities) seek them because they're closer to their deathbed than an otherwise healthy person?
Everyone's life is hanging on the line whether they know it or not, so of course that part is true.
But having been raised extremely religious, and buying into the whole thing whole-heartedly until my late teens and early twenties when I guess my mind simply would no longer allow myself to live in delusion - I can definitely vouch for the "week mind" part of your statement.
And you're right, not week as in dumb, but another kind of week, though I'm not sure your explanation was the best.
To toot my own horn, (only because it's a relevant example I swear :/ ) I was a straight A student and had the highest SAT's in my graduating class, full academic scholarships, etc, and yet I believed I had an invisible daddy in the sky watching over me. It's like a blanket to shield you from the realities of life, there's really no such thing as death, if I mess up it's okay because I just have to say sorry, etc. I hate it now actually; I think it's a poison.
I was very smart, but I had a part of my mind that was so closed it is almost scary to think of it. This is a weakness, and I definitely had it.
The religious don't really consider other options, they pretend to, they may even think they do, but to the religious, the only thing that can possibly be right is what they think. You cannot reason with these people, which can become dangerous when a religion takes a turn like during the crusades, or when they start a jihad, or even when they simply refuse to grant a group of people equal rights because they think god doesn't want them to. They make excuses for these actions, literally entrench their opinions on something in such a twisted labyrinth of semi-logic that they are incapable of seeing for instance that not allowing two consenting gay people to marry is no different than not allowing a straight couple who are for some reason unable to have kids to marry, there literally is no difference from a moral or social standpoint in the two situations, but they cannot see this, it's impossible for some. Everything has been excused from murder to rape in the name of a god, but no correlation to any other similar or past injustice can be made in their minds, even if they acknowledge a past injustice, when they are in that moment, because in that moment, they believe a god has taken responsibility for them... er, that makes sense I swear, I can't think of a better way to put it though.
Anyway, there are 2 main kinds of religious people, those indoctrinated as I was, and those who turn to god later in life.
I would guess indoctrination is the worse culprit, as even though I was always good at figuring stuff out, it was two or three years of struggling with it, studying it, making excuses for the inaccuracies in it, before I could finally shed myself of it. I imagine most never go through the trouble and remain week-minded in that sense for their whole existence.
The other kind though, I think you'll find that people do not turn to god later unless they are looking for a way out. An escape from addiction, from their life, or from death, they are not capable of handling these things within themselves, to come to terms with them, and so buy into a pretty story that has them living happily ever after.
I'm not necessarily against that last one if it brings them comfort, so long as they don't insist others participate in their delusion. Still though, it is a weakness stemming from an inability to handle facts of life.
