Going to a concert or church

When people say that religion is a scam and that the Catholic church peddles lies, they are speaking tangential to the practitioners. A smart practitioner cannot and should not use reason to defend the common attacks head-on. Take the Noah's Ark myth. It is exceedingly unlikely that that story is true and there is certainly many better explanations for why fossils exist. Noah's Ark is actually a totally unnecessary myth. In the context of the rest of the Bible, the story of Noah and his ark is used to describe God's willingness to punish sinners and provide a path to salvation through Noah. Those arguments could be proven without such a fantastical story that opens itself up to attacks of reason. In that sense, the story is unnecessary. Practitioners do not practice because they can justify their beliefs with reason. Deep down, they are driven to the myth at some fundamental level and then the conscious part of their brain is forced to justify in words why their unconscious has chosen that path. The elephant/rider is analogy works well here. The elephant decides where he wants to go. The rider may feel as though he's in control, but he really, he can't control the elephant. The majority of Catholics are born into Catholic households. Their elephant's are indoctrinated at a young age. In later years, as they read books and write essays and learn science, the riders in their brains design completely logical machinery to justify their elephants.

Perhaps it is the enlightened one who accepts the practice. I went to a concert with some high school friends a few years ago in Chicago. It was a festival, and we were planning on getting to the venue early and staying all day. We arrived around noon. It was drizzling rain but still quite crowded. Early in the day, the lesser-known acts perform and I was not familiar with this first act we saw. It was some kind of slow RnB music, not really my speed. At some point, I turned to BG and said "this music sucks" in between laughs. His face went straight and he paused. "That may be true, but you can't say that." Looking around, I saw folks who had arrived early to see this band. They did not come to litigate different aspects of the band's style. They did not want to convert me or anyone else. They were having fun doing anything together as a crowd. Churches operate in much the same way. You don't go into a church and say "this is not true". To your elephant brain, that actually is not relevant. "This is not true" actually only sends other people's rider brains into a spiral and ruins the experience a little bit. Noah's Ark did not happen but that does not mean the story is not powerful. It also doesn't mean you should point out the fact that its not true, much like you should not point out the fact that a band sucks when you've just shown up to a concert for that band.