[iosystem]

> I was raised totally secular

How come your comment history says otherwise (Judaism). I'm perplexed that the new approach to selling religion is pretending to be raised secular and or have others perceive oneself to once be an atheist but then later found the truth in life. Religion was the worst, the worst thing for me to experience in life, and I wish everyone could've experienced similar to me. Since religious people tend to not care about people that have been greatly harmed in life by what they continue to practice, keeping it alive to harm more people. A lot of members of LGBTQ+ classification know what the harm is truly like.

[tomrod]

I think you answered your own question to a degree. As I was being raised in an extremely high cost religion, I remember converts were given a very special glow and respect. Oh, they may never be full members of the tribe nor expected to lead very often, but their stories were affirmations that our religion must be right to convince people to join.

Also, these converts were used in proselyting from the populations they came from.

I've noticed most atheists are by default "converts" in a sense, and the now-religious conversion parallels appear to have a few dimensions to it.

[nostrademons]

There are many secular Jews in the U.S. - people for whom Judaism is a culture and ethnicity that's part of their background, but who don't believe in a higher power or any of the scriptures.

I remember asking a friend's dad "So are you Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform?" and he was like "We're kinda beyond Reform."