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In reply to the discussion: When you die, there will be nobody waiting to greet you [View all]Orrex
(63,084 posts)I could as readily (and with at least equal justification) declare that many become theists simply because they were trained from childhood to believe without actual evidence. They may not stick with their initial faith, but once the groundwork is set for belief in the unverifiable, it's not hard to convince oneself that such beliefs are supported by evidence even when in fact they are not. That, I suspect, is how you've convinced yourself that anecdotal "near death experiences" prove existence beyond physical death.
More cruelly, one could assert that theists simply fear a universe that doesn't have some over-arching metaphysical "purpose" or "meaning," so they make up a concept of Truth or some magical guardian to mind the store.
I never tire of theists taking it upon themselves to educate atheists on the nature of atheism and to advise those atheists why they aren't theists.