@detectivehyde @dolus @coolboymew @sim I'm not too sure, actually. It seems to be a very personal journey for most people, and it requires the capacity for introspection, for independent learning, and for genuine honesty with oneself. Introspection is quashed by modern social norms. Independent learning is quashed by modern educational systems all the way to the late undergrad level for STEM degrees or the Ph.D level in the liberal arts, and the social conditioning has usually taken hold by then. Finally, being genuinely honest with yourself is scary, it's probably the scariest thing you can do short of fighting in trenches.

For me, my personal journey involved being religious up until I was 15ish or so, but high school was interesting. I started reading history books and religious texts for fun, took a high school philosophy class that challenged a lot of my ideas, and by the end of high school I met someone who was quite religious. I had some very interesting theological discussions with her since she had a very deep understanding of the bible, although somewhat molded by the religion she was raised in. That's where the theological education agendas come in. By the time I was 19-20 I was full fedora, a little insufferable, a little scientism-y. But I kept reading and I kept gaining life experience.

Then I did a STEM degree and dealt with these kids who were really intelligent but amazingly ignorant of history and theology. I'm the sort of person that plays devil's advocate in a lot of discussions not only for my own edification, but also to ensure that all the relevant issues have been brought up. I learned a lot about how stupid a lot of the usual atheist positions sounded, especially when it was coming out of someone else's mouth, especially when they were positions I held too. I got absolutely fucking sick of scientism and modern atheism. It felt fundamentally unsatisfying.

So I read more, and learned more, and did introspection. Nearing the start of my fourth year of my degree, I was more agnostic leaning towards spiritual than anything else. Not wishy-washy hippie spirituality, though. I was open to new ideas. It was also at this time that the religious person I talked about previously underwent a major change, because family members died, friends died, and she got back into her religion. Sadly that religion is more of a cult and very biblically literal, so I was cut out of her life. It made me read a lot more, and it made me a lot more introspective.

Then I went to Japan, alone. Since I was alone, in a place where I could barely communicate with the people, I had to deal with nothing but my own thoughts for two weeks. I made it a point to visit as many shrines and temples as possible, at least one every day. I visited over 90 shrines and temples in my journey all across the country, and donated 6125 yen to 49 individual shrines. I went through the entire little ritual whenever I could too. And in return, I kept catching really lucky breaks. I'd take random buses and they'd get to the destinations I wanted to just in time, I visited every place I wanted to visit safely, there'd be cases where typhoons missed the place I was staying at by a day or two, for two weeks. I felt very fulfilled on a spiritual and emotional level. I started to personally understand the truths that underlaid these religions, and I found the spiritual satisfaction I had been searching for nearly a decade.

Even now I'm still having to process everything I went through that summer, but it was a personal journey, fundamentally. It required a lot of introspection, and throwing away worldviews, and coming to terms with the person I am. I'm most definitely not an atheist, but I wouldn't label myself as a deist or agnostic or religious. Maybe spiritual? But that has too many connotations with the fucking hippie new-agers that just ruined the concept of searching for fundamental truths within religion.

But to get back to your question, I think it fundamentally comes down to people being honest with themselves and trying to search for truth. It requires a lot of knowledge, and wisdom, and I don't think either come naturally with age. And the one thing normalfags hate the most is challenging their worldview. So they don't do it.

My best example of this is a guy I knew from uni. For whatever reason, he showed up in all of the circles of friends I made there, he was a close acquaintance by virtue of being fucking everywhere. He's the most bluepilled normalfag you can get. Raised in a rural town outside the city to very religious parents, moved to the city for uni, and now a hearty believer in scientism and the Church of Bill Nye and Black Science Man. Always going on about how religions are the source of all ignorance, looks down on anyone without a STEM degree, always railing against anything he considers pseudoscience or spiritual concepts, believes in nothing but himself and the undoubted veracity of scientific knowledge.
And every time I got aggravated with the guy, I would remind myself that never in his life had he left either his small hometown or this city. He had never spent more than a day or two alone. He was always out doing shit and always trying to keep up appearances. He had never been honest with himself. Most people are like him. It's very rare for anyone to be alone with their thoughts in a socially lonely place that means something to them. Dealing with loneliness is important, but people are so scared of it that they are glued to social networks all day.

All this to say, I don't think there's hope for normalfags to go through this process without being forced to have their worldviews come crashing down around them. That might happen soon.

P.S. https://gs.smuglo.li/attachment/361136