Hi Just,
I think that there are some people who are clinging to this idea because they don’t want to account for how they conducted themselves later in life. They reject Christianity because they failed to measure up to a moral standard.
My father was an Atheist, he was the man who raised me. In all practicalities, he was a good man.
When he was a young altar boy, his father died. The Rector of the Catholic school told him that in order for his father to go to heaven is a wad of cash to fulfill his father’s safe passage . Dad didn’t have two dimes rubbed together because his siblings could barely eat anything at all . He declined and buried his father in a cheap coffin without the service. He left the church permanently.
In the United States, most people don’t have a moral compass - whatever iota of wisdom that you’ve learned along the way is enough for you to survive. For me, Religion is a sort of meditation to get through hard times.