What are the advantages of being a theist?
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You'd be in the majority in your community unless you're in a religion the majority hates or fears.
You have a social web you can fall back on.
You'll be seen as normal or average by everyone else.
Easier to fit in. Being a sheep is far easier than being an actual rebel or going against the crowd, which is why so many cling to religions of their area.
You don't have to do any actual thinking. Your thinking is done for you. Any questions you might have are generally kept to yourself.
It keeps you out of trouble or actual danger of being killed. You are protected from being singled out, from being arrested for heresy or blasphemy. You are also protected from being banished or ostracized for having views different than the religious majority. You don't risk losing everything you know and love if you cling to whatever religion rules your area.
Comfort and safety against enemies you're told are out to get you. A lot of fear underlines religions. You're told continuously that the outside world is bad or evil, that a devil is manipulating everything or behind bad things happening. The world becomes very easy to understand. Everything becomes black or white. You don't have to think, just fear a lot, then side with those you're told are fighting the good fight.
Not much changes. If you long for the good ole days you're told were great, religion offers a version of that with a vision of the future of returning to those good old days that never existed in the first place. But that would involve thinking. That would involve study and scholarship and a deep dive into the actual history of whatever country you live in, not the shiny propaganda offered up for natioanlists and religious people who want Mayberry but actually want some weird all-white KKK wet dream.
It gives you your opinions on various social and other subjects. Dissent here can be dangerous and get you treated badly. You have to align with whatever religious group you've thrown your lot in with. If they're against abortion, so are you. If they're screaming about how Trump is the second coming of Jesus and voting for a Democrat is akin to skinning children alive for their adrenal glands, well. You can dissent in private, but you'd better by hell agree in public with your group.
It's easier to keep with a religious group than distance yourself from it or even leave it. It's just easier all the way around. In all ways. It takes actual courage to leave a religion and everything that goes with that. All the benefits and assumed rights and all that crap.
-- Madam Sin Bin
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