And yet, few fields can make many human beings as unwilling to face the evidence as religion. It is exactly because these ideas are so central to their lives that they dont want anyone to plant doubts in their minds.
So, is religion really for the weak minded, is it just a crutch for those who need something to just believe in, something to make their life worth living, then if this is so, should we or not still questions these peoples beliefs, or should we just leave them where they are happy in their beliefs.
I think you fail to understand the role religion plays in people's lives to attach the term "weak-minded" to it in their resistance to question it. Religion is tied to and informs and supports ones worldview. It's not merely some propositional truth that one considers the evidence over to decide whether or not it's "true" as you would a news report about some story. I believe you are mistaking what religious truths are with scientific truths.
A religion, its practices, its customs, its beliefs are tied to ones culture and values. Its tied to family and tradition. Its tied to loyalties. Its tied to self-identity. When someone moves in with challenges to traditional understandings, they are viewed as a threat to a way of life. These ways of life are built upon cultural transmissions, not rational propositional truths. People are afraid of moving because they think they will
amputate their own culture, their family values, their grandparent's values. So this fear of amputation is what freezes people and makes them entrenched in their own camp.
What you seem exacerbated by is that others can't move into the worldviews you've adopted. They should be able to shift their center of gravity away from their own past to the future you've found for yourself. And to go after their sacred cows, showing how illogical or irrational these associated beliefs are they still hold to as part of that system, should be enough to get them to see the light and be saved.
It doesn't work like that. However someone can move to the next camp and retain the beauty of the traditions and myths, while at the same time understanding there are different perspectives. This is not something arrived at through logic arguments, but through a shift in worldviews, through a stage of development. That is something very individualistic, and nothing so called reason can create.
People often mistake that their own changes like this happened because they "heard the truth" and it changed their minds. I think they are blinded to what was going on in themselves long before they "heard the truth" and changed. They were hearing the same things all along, but they weren't ready or needed a change for where they were at in their lives. They didn't need to change. Then something happened internally, and something was no longer working for them. There were some subtle inner conflicts, some need not being met. That's when they listened to another voice that seem to speak to that new need, and it seems to fit sufficiently enough for them to make the move to the next stage of growth for them.
So, in all this, I think you'll see a different way to view this.
So should I just keep my big mouth shut and say nothing, or should I tiptoe around egg shells trying no to say the wrong words, as I said its frustrating.
No, just take into account where people are at in how you approach them.
