I can't explain your sisters avian fixation.

But with regards to your Emerson-descended friend, the Christian business has spent the past 2,000 years figuring out ways to deceive and manipulate people. This usually starts when they are very young, although they also target adolescents and adults, most often when they are vulnerable because they are in some kind of crisis where Christianity offers to fix everything for free if you will just believe.

Like any good con game, the original offer gets modified, without your prior knowledge or consent, as soon as you take the bait. "Salvation is the free gift that costs you everything". They tell you that you now have to give every detail of your life to the Sky Daddy , who is invisible and doesn't talk to anyone any more. But his servants - ministers and other Christian leaders - are more than happy to tell you what Sky Daddy wants you to do. Miraculously, this often benefits the servants themselves in some way.

It's "mushroom theology" - keep your flocks in the dark and feed them manure. It is no accident. These Christian organizations work at it.

It seems to me that it is conditioning. Early impressions and education have deep roots. Parental and community beliefs are hard to deny (if one wants to remain in good standing). I have a sister-in-law with altzheimer's. Early memories are the last to go.

Inductive reasoning will enable anyone to rationalize anything, while deductive reasoning makes avoiding realities that much harder. But paradigms often trump everything else. LOL

I'm shooting for 3times 5squared...anything more will be a bonus.

religion is a fear of death. to give something for the unknown

If you find an answer - let me know ! I have a well educated sister too, who seems quite reasonable in many ways , and yet she and her husband - also a smarty, and their three grown educated sons and wives, are all Christian nuts. For the life of me, I don't get it ! While we're not estranged, there definitely exists a chasm of difference ...

People are smart in different ways. Part of it depends on what field someone is educated in. The more educated you are, the more likely you are to believe climate change is real. But, if you're a climatologist it's almost a certainty. The more educated you are, the less likely you are to be religious. But, if you're a physicist or astronomer, you're much more likely to be a non-believer. Poets may be smart, but not educated in the sciences enough to let go of magical thinking.

Everybody believes in evidence. Oddly enough, some people at times put this rational thinking aside and resort to faith. This is irrational thinking but it provides these people with a (false) reason to believe their wishful thinking. Faith also provides answers to unanswerable questions (the god of the gaps).

Although over my head, I think The God Delusion pretty much describes it. These people are delusional. They find great comfort in their delusions. That and their just nuts.

It's called faith and confession

Oh my friend, we could write books about. I have aqcuintances like that too and it does puzzle me but not enough to try to understand it. People believe what they want to believe and sometimes there is nothing we can do

A mix of Brainwashing and infant indoctrination by terror.
It is hard to break out of it without help, especially when part of the indoctrination is to be indoctrinated at a VERY young age in to believing that even doubting the indoctrination will result in your burning in agony forever.

It seems humanity in it’s current form is not completely ..done. ‘We’ can’t handle the reality of our limited lives, so make up or remain susceptible to fantasies describing more than there obviously is..

It becomes a trap, though. In order to taste the fantasy, ‘they’re’ forced to swallow it. Guilty of over indulging, they overcompensate by promoting the entire myth ...when all they wanted or needed was just a taste.

When in the safety of good people like us, most will eventually admit the fantasy of their religious affiliations, but the shame they’d endure admitting the same to the world is too much for them. They may even say, ‘I’m not as strong as you.’ Sadly, they’re not..

Cognitive dissonance.

Compartmentalization. Confirmation bias. Agency inference. Lack of training in critical thinking, especially within certain compartments. Cultural bias towards non-skeptical credulousness about certain things. Social pressure and reinforcement. Dread of one's mortality. Manipulation of various kinds.

What's amazing really is how easy it is to fool the human brain.

The vedas were written thousands of years ago and they speak of reincarnation. so it has a long history.