My husband, bounced from church to church with his indecisive grandmother and time in religious daycare and sunday school found it suspect that his dog didn't go to heaven when he asked aged 8, and refused as a teenager to be dragged in front of a pastor to be 'saved'. Seeing religion as yet another crutch for emotionally screwed up adults in his life and again for some of his friends later on, pretty much put him off religion and snuffed out any belief in god. He was amazed at how irreligious Scotland was when he got here and in the decade he's been away, how irreligious his peers back home have became, eveb those settling down and raising kids.
When you say "crutch for emotionally screwed up adults", do you mean this to imply that he sees tangible value to religion but rejects it, at least in part, because he sees it as a tool for the weak? I ask because many things, religious and not, can be described in the same manner, but few would reject them wholesale. CBT comes to mind, as does certain medications. Like religion, they do not always provide sufficient answers to life's questions but even as "crutches" they are nonetheless indispensable to many people's mental, as well as spiritual, wellness, and that is what justifies their existence, even from a secular point of view.
I don't want to go into personal matters. But I respect the experiences he had growing up leading him to his conclusions as much as I respect yours.
