because i just came across it again and it seems sort of relevant to your point:

Those who are destitute of philosophy may be compared to prisoners in a cave, who are only able to look in one direction because they are bound, and who have a fire behind them and a wall in front. Between them and the wall there is nothing; all that they see are shadows of themselves, and of objects behind them, cast on the wall by the light of the fire. Inevitably they regard these shadows as real, and have no notion of the objects to which they are due. At last, some man succeeds in escaping from the cave to the light of the sun; for the first time he sees real things, and becomes aware that he had hitherto been deceived by shadows. If he is the sort of philosopher who is fit to become a guardian, he will feel it is his duty to those who were formerly his fellow prisoners to go down again into the cave, instruct them as to the truth, and show them the way up. But he will have difficulty in persuading them, because, coming out of the sunlight, he will see shadows less clearly than they do, and will seem to them stupider than before his escape.

Plato. The Republic, 7.514

Summary by Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, ch. 15 (1946)

That said, doses of mockery, though admittedly they may have temporarily made me more obstinate, because they persisted and came from people who were as passionate about their own positions as i was about my then held beliefs, eventually forced me to examine my own inherited beliefs more closely, a scrutiny which they couldn't really survive. i do try to remember, that my atheism like my ex-religion, and everything else for that matter, is largely coincidental.

though i do think it's unhelpful, to treat absurdity as sacrosanct so as not to offend believers of that absurdity, i might have been saved months, if not years, more of my life, if those same friends had dared to be more direct. too often religion is still given too much leeway, a now decrepit authority, it continues to make arguments about reality when it's most basic tenets are inherently flawed.

on this sub, when questions are asked in a sociable enough tone, there are patient responses. other than that, people will tear you a new one on even benign topics, for no reason other than they are having a shit day, welcome to both the internet and real life.