We need to remember that people aren't Vulcans, no matter how some might wish they were when they're playing clever logic games. There's
always bias, there's
always irrationality. Believers (gah, I hate that term) do not have the monopoly on that. Some (rare) skeptics even admit to being emotionally biased towards atheism. They don't
want to believe in God, spirits, an afterlife, whatever. Are these the deviant minority that failed their skeptical Kolinahr? Sure the hard evidence
is on their side (so far), but let's not pretend they've transcended as entities of pure impersonal logic just yet.
I've met as many atheists who were terrified by the possiblity that Big Skydaddy really
was watching them as theists who found the concept of a pointless universe a soul-destroying Dementor to be banished mercilessly with every wishful thought they can muster. No one is impartial. Some people certainly fear oblivion, but I'll bet just as many fear judgement, reincarnating or existing as pure consciousness without time. If even some of what some people say is true, then the afterlife scares the crap out of me... I don't like change.
