Ask Lemmy

I have the opposite perception - that people become in fact more conservative and buying into conspiracy theories more readily as they age.

Evangelical in the sense of protestant christians or in the sense of that crazy cult that's going on over in the Americas? Maybe it's just the news giving me the wrong idea, but I really don't recognise my religion just one ocean away.

I am a scepticist, but (or rather because) I grew up with a progressive church that allows and encourages critical thinking. Very tame stances overall, no overly aggressive rethoric, laughing and coloring you hair very much allowed. Then you cross the pond and hear fuming people talk about filthy infidels and holy wars like wth...

I think these people are not necessarily easy to manipulate, but indoctrinated to hell and back

Because they're people; and people, in general, are easy to manipulate.

It's because their religion has taught them to trust religious leaders without question. They have faith that the church knows what is best for them and their community. They tend to not use critical thinking when it comes to religious matters.

People often have a similar faith in their parents judgement. If Mom or Dad asks them to do something that seems foolish, many people will still do it simply because of the unquestioning trust they have for their parents.

Because the premise of religion involves having full faith in someone/something without question or evidence. So the more a person believes in it, the easier they are to manipulate, and it tends to have the same effect on other things. So if you are able to tickle that specific part of their brain and make them fully believe in something, you can have them do almost anything you want them to do.

Many of them grew up in the church, attending 2-3 times per week and spend every single Sunday surrounded by people of one mind. As children we tend to default to believing people and when everyone you know says the same thing constantly it becomes real fucking easy to just accept as truth without questioning (especially when your religion contains a fancy "faith" clause that exists to hand wave away any inconsistency and when doubt itself is enough for an eternal trip to the fire pit).

The real kicker is that, having been trained since birth to accept as truth anything the powerful man in the front says you are primed to fall for politicians making wild and provably false claims without presenting any evidence.

Complex topic, but this is a starting point: https://www.conspirituality.net/cult-dynamics-101

I think it stems from a simple concept. People would rather outsource their own thinking about complex human issues like morality, our place in the universe, meaning in our individual lives, and anything afterlife related to someone we/they perceive as more intelligent than them or has "done the research". By and large humanity as a species is lazy, and this extends to our trains of thought as well.

Oftentimes, people who think that they are not vulnerable are the most vulnerable ones.

The belief of a higher order being can bring about a sense of peace of mind that someone higher above is watching over you in addition to the belonging that one can find in like-minded crowds/gatherings.

This historical collection of beliefs in combination with any random person calling themselves a priest/bishop/evangelist means that people will follow whomever like sheep because they want that security even if built on fragile scaffolding.

Unfortunately as this system can create a large quantity of easily exploitable people; you'll see many corrupt governments, corporations, and cults try to replicate this in order to milk people for all their worth even at the expense of literally everything good in the world.

Another related question: Why are people seemingly more inclined to become more religious as they age?

You may be doing a little generalization there. Evangelicals are not representative of religious people.