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Excellent article. The author notes that new converts to a religion are often zealous in dangerous ways relative to those raised in it because they take everyth
by biomcgary 11y ago
Excellent article. The author notes that new converts to a religion are often zealous in dangerous ways relative to those raised in it because they take everything a bit too literally. Interestingly, I've seen the same pattern holds true of "converts" between various relatively similar strains of Christianity. Recent "converts" to atheism and rationality also frequently follow this pattern, but they tend to temper with time as well (or they just exhaust themselves).
- norea-armozel 11y agoAs someone who's been on both sides of the conversion to/from Christianity (and strong atheism) I can confirm there's a moment where you just switch off all reasoning with others but after a time it becomes more stressful than it's worth. Eventually two things will occur from what I've noticed in others: either you get tired of the bs (like you hinted at) and mellow out or you double down on the fanaticism. I can't figure out why the latter occurs considering how much stress it seems to put on a person both psychologically and physically. You'd think the body's own limitations would be the ultimate stop button but it seems the human mind/brain is more stubborn than I'd like to believe. :/