orthonormal comments on How can people be actually converted? - Less Wrong

5 Post author: yttrium 05 February 2012 10:13PM

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Comment author: orthonormal 06 February 2012 04:22:19PM 6 points [-]

People already have plenty of evidence; they just need a social reason to change their filter.

What I'd say is different between conversions and de-conversions is that the social incentive for religious conversion often takes the form of peer pressure or wanting to belong to a particular group, while de-conversion seems to just require evidence that you won't be completely cut off from good/cool/interesting people if you turn atheist.

I should say that the main evidence I have here is my own history (one data point in each set) as well as a few observed de-conversions in my friends (and one aborted de-conversion from a person who couldn't imagine letting go of his devout family and friends). And I've known people who converted (before I met them) to religion for reasons that sounded more like an innate yearning for deontology.