In the 21st century most people are relatively atheist, identifying with their religion more so as a way to maintain community. Most of us don’t believe in the certainty of our religion’s specific heaven or hell, although do believe in a vague afterlife as well as divine justice. This secularization is the result of the world wars as a response to the church’s failure, the inability to find meaning with a relatable or even human god, and putting more blame on a nation's failure than divine meaning.
In catholicism it’s always better to be conned, tortured, and taken advantage of than to ever be the con artist, the torturer, or aggressor. It is always better to be good and to give endlessly to emulate Jesus than to ever be Pontious Pilate. If I was ever in the position of being a killer, an unwilling killer– it would push me into believing in God. If I had been killed in self defense, or on the behalf of someone else where I was permitted to, would the immediate haunting I’d face be something I’d deem as purely psychological?
A housewife who kills her abusive husband could easily lose faith in God for his failure to save her, leading to the conclusion that the certainty of eternal damnation in the afterlife is preferable to the current suffering she has endured in the present. A US soldier in the middle of war, running over a small child with a tank– the immediate haunting could easily compel them to religion or place blame on the system that permitted them to commit such an act of thoughtless murder. I wonder the extent of societal and direct social influences truly explains whether or not someone turns to god in times of being the executioner.
If I was born with the world around me as is with no explanation, where the appearance of chairs, beds, and infrastructure was deemed as naturally occurring to me as trees, I could easily live my life not seeking a divine answer for its creation and of my intuitive use of such objects. But if I faced death with no greater purpose not as the executed but as the killer, it could compel me to search for a higher purpose and divine forgiveness. Society on a widespread level could accept me, adore me, and even congratulate me, there is no denying that the air around me would shift knowing that I have killed. Where the act of killing and its subsequent effects on me impacted my relationship with friends, family, and potential partners, the only thing I could pursue that could feasibly get the weight of death off of me is religion.
Maybe that’s the only thing that it takes for me to be religious, and maybe the threshold is more or less extreme for everyone in terms of dedicating onself to an organized religion.