archive of the mentioned NYT article
A state of mind that’s unfortunately quite common. See religion for example, magical kingdom ruled by an all-powerful being that lets you in if you behave accordingly. But you have to die first. Yet people gobble it up and even do bad things to other people just for the case that maybe it might be real, even if it likely isn’t.
In this case it sounded like a bunch of amoral assholes on 4chan tried to trick a vulnerable individual to kill themselves. A religion that operated like that would not be able to sustain itself and spread.
Yet, amoral assholes tricking vulnerable people with tales of magic is how religion spreads.
No it isn’t you idiot. But please continue to spout 90s era New Atheism propaganda as if it will change anyone’s minds at this point.