Rivergang - “We are seeing once again the suggestion that only religious people know how to behave themselves.”
It stems from the old authoritarian idea that deep down, humanity is bad and needs to be kept on a short leash for its own damn good, and the only really effective short leash is a strict, inflexible religious environment.
Naturally, people raised that way are typically only able to see affirmation of this, when they and their immediate peers display “sinful” tendencies, and the fear of divine (or, more often than not, societal) retribution seems to be the only thing keeping them being even worse.
We all judge others (consciously or otherwise) based on our own example, because we can’t see into anyone else’s head.
Nobody wants to actually believe that they’re worse than the people around them, so the only other alternative for someone raised that way is to assume that everyone else is just as shitty as they are, if not more so (not to mention that, to a hammer, sooner or later everything starts to look like a nail).
Naturally, they come to the conclusion that people reject religion simply because they just want an excuse to be blatantly “sinful”, because if they didn’t, they’d become good churchgoin’ folk (duh).
Know how I know?
’Cause that was me.
Know how I figured out I was wrong?
’Cause the older I got (and particularly after my kids were born), I observed firsthand - unexpectedly and repeatedly - that the vast majority of people, including the nonreligious, were way more decent and “moral” than they’d ever been given credit for.
Regardless of where they spent their Sunday mornings.