I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to disagree with here,at least partially. I agree with the part where you said people will generally tend to believe what they hear most of.

The problem is that religion subscribes to a set of rigid immutable beliefs that have zero basis on fact and science. There is zero proof that there is a man in the sky waving a magic wand doing magical things for his beloved subjects.

The only thing that religion has going for it is that people are intimidated into 'better have faith or you're going to rot in hell for all eternity.'

Zero logic,zero facts,zero proof. More of a trust me,that's just how it is. Now repeat after me....You repeat that enough times to an impressionable kid,you're gonna get someone indoctrinated and willing to kill people because what they believe in is against what he was indoctrinated with.

Unfortunately,with higher cognition and the awareness of 'self' that humans have developed(through millions of years of evolution,I might add) also comes the realization that death is unavoidable. Life is persistent,it doesn't want to end. Humans have trouble reconciling with the fact that there is nothing after death.

The questions start piling up. 'I'm human,surely I'm special?','What is my purpose in life' ,'how can it all just all end after death,there has to be something else!' .

It is this fervent hope that it does not all end with death that religion very conveniently steps in to address with 'of course not, there is heaven and hell,and if you don't do as I say,well it's off to hell with you. But do XYZ and its heaven for all eternity.'

It's all a system of checks and balances designed to subjugated weak willed people. This was all fine and dandy thousands of years ago when there was zero science and everything was magic.

That's why Jesus' miracle was walking on water. That's all the people who wrote the bible at that time could literally come up with. If someone claimed to be able to do that today,people would immediately look for the catch.

That's what happens with progress and acquisition of knowledge....it leads to people being less superstitious and promotes logical and rational thought. Only religion gets a free pass....I mean if someone claimed that the Earth was flat or that the Sun revolved around the Earth today,he would be laughed out of the room. But afterlife and hell,so alright we'll let religion through.

I'm usually not militant about my rationalist beliefs and there are definitely some assholes in r/atheism. But I happened to serendipitously find my way here through the Texas thing link. I was really appreciating how people were saying its wrong and how they were being well,genuinely caring human beings when I stumbled into you.

I was alarmed to see how you honeyduked that other guy with your words. That's how people have always gotten their way with other people,great oratory skills. You sounded magnanimous and all knowing and how r/atheism is not representative of atheism just as some terrorists are not representative of all religion(and I do agree with you on that point).

But I was also extremely dismayed at how easily he accepted your logic( which at face value is not incorrect). You sounded wise and he agreed with what you said....and totally failed to realize the basic fallacy of your echo chamber example- that the starting point of religion is trust me,that's what the book says vs logic and rational thought which begins with 'ok,so we have progressed enough as a species that I know evolution is true(because there's just too much proof),which means religion is wrong because all religions start with God created man.

That's the basic fault in your argument -one echo chamber will always resound with the same words(heaven,hell,trust me,book says so) till the day humanity dies out vs the other echo chamber that is having more and more words and knowledge added to it every single day and is leading to progress and refuses to believe in fairy tales without proof.

I hope that guy wasn't undecided about religion because if he was you totally turned him. You are more than welcome to believe what you want but please don't brainwash weak willed people like that.

You can downvote me to hell but I still had to say this.