[riskable]

> Athiesm seems like the objective rational truth.

> But why do billions of people believe in an invisible man in the sky?

There's no equivalency or even logical basis of comparison between these two statements. You could've said, "Oranges exist... But why do we have apples?" or "Some areas of the ocean have boats. But why do other areas not have boats?" and it would make about as much sense.

> What is the objective truth that we can learn from that?

That atheists exist but not everyone is an atheist? What would we by trying to learn from this sort of search for understanding?

"Why both sides believe what they do" is an enormously open-ended, completely ambiguous realm of thought. To drill down the logic behind this sort of question; "because the universe happened."

I'm pretty sure we understand why anti-vax people exist... The roads that lead there aren't that numerous. We also understand why they think we're wrong and they're right and vice versa. There's no "lack of understanding".

The real question is, "how do we break them free from irrational thought?" Is it even possible (en masse) when so many powerful entities depend on these people to stay irrational?

Could the likes of Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax even exist if everyone suddenly switched over to Vulkan-like logical thinking?

[edmcnulty101]

> There's no equivalency or even logical basis of comparison between these two statements

They're polar opposites. If one is true the other is false.

However there's truth to both of them.

[riskable]

Actually, no: If the atheists are right then the theists are 100% wrong. There's no middle ground there or "truth to both sides."

If the theists are right... Which theists? Are we talking about polytheists? Single god but multiple instances of it (aka Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism)? Monotheism?

If any one of those are right then all the others are wrong. There's not really any ground that exists between these beliefs.

[edmcnulty101]

Religion provides community, it provides a spiritual outlet, it provides ritual, it provides comfort in the face of death.

There's many benefits and truths about religion that don't require an invisible man in the sky to exist.

That was acutually my original point.

TRUTH can be found in both atheism and theism.

[riskable]

I think you're confused. The truth you're talking about exists outside of both of those contexts (theism VS atheism).

Religion is just a collection of beliefs that may or may not involve "an invisible man in the sky". Theism VS atheism are mostly orthogonal to the point you're trying to make.

[edmcnulty101]

People are driven and indeed may have a need for a sense of a higher power.

Having a shared sense of purpose is very powerful for people.

You don't get that from an atheistic Church which is basically just a club where the only shared purpose is disliking something.