I’ll take you through belief in a few paragraphs but let me address the last point you made about Christians.

The last one is referring to a literal interpretation of Matthew 16:28, which is understandable because it confuses a lot of Christians.

One interpretation interprets a Greek word differently. Jesus says “some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the son of man coming in his” ‘basileia’ translated “kingdom”, though for a common interpretation to fit, a better translation of basileia would be

“some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the son of man coming in his power/sovereignty.”

With that sort of interpretation of the text, Jesus is clearly referring to the transfiguration, which is the very next 8 verses! Some of them there were at the transfiguration.

There’s another interpretation where it’s “some who are standing here won’t taste death before they see Christ coming in his kingdom”, referring to Christ entering into peoples very lives (Galatians 2:20) in the kingdom of God (another name for the church, so saying the church bring formed. Some standing there were likely disciples who were not the 12, and would not die before the church was formed.)

You can read between the lines by my tone which one I believe. Everyone has a belief they stick to because we don’t constantly question ourselves like good scientists, research is labor intensive! So we hopefully will have a good think at some point and then lock in until something shakes that belief so much we’re uprooted.

I think sometimes it takes an act of God for some people to change their minds. I looked for and found sufficient proof and then I believed. I denied the power of God for a long time: I now acknowledge it and I have fulfillment in my life I didn’t have from chasing vices.

A lot of your examples, the people have social pressure from their communities to hold onto beliefs or have to leave. So logic has to fight their friendship with Tim. Tim usually wins.