Excuses can cover a multitude of reasons.
I greatly respect a man who has taken time to investigate the claims of Christ and concludes he just can't believe. I was counseling a person who was fed up with Christianity because she believed it was not historical and there was just nothing to it factually. She had convinced everyone that she had searched and found profound intellectual problems as the result of her university studies. One after another would try to persuade her intellectually and to answer her many accusations. I listened and then asked several questions.