Certainly a big part of the comfort of religion for me was making a monstrous, unknowable world (which had been poorly explained to me as a kid) easier to under

Certainly a big part of the comfort of religion for me was making a monstrous, unknowable world (which had been poorly explained to me as a kid) easier to understand. I built up a number of mental barriers to shield myself from inconvenient facts. When I went through a real bad time, it gave me simple axioms and stories that seemed to help me persevere. Stepping away from that comfort was difficult and took time. It's also isolating. Nonetheless, I could no longer make extraordinary claims without extraordinary evidence. I'd rather know the truth of things the best I can, while I can.