Sometimes I wonder if it's better for a religion to have strange beliefs: 1a) It's a better show of commitment to the group if you are willing to stand up and

Sometimes I wonder if it's better for a religion to have strange beliefs: 1a) It's a better show of commitment to the group if you are willing to stand up and say the absurd on behalf of the group. It's saying that membership in the group matters more to you than the potential loss of face. You could expect to be able to rely on such a person to be loyal to the group. 1b) It's also a better show of group commitment if someone is motivated enough to try to convince themselves of something very difficult to believe. 2) Groups espousing weird beliefs will face ostracism, and that will bind them more to each other. They will spend more time with each other away from outsiders, developing their belief system further with even less sanity checking from the outside.