Why do you think humanity is so dependent upon religion?

Question

What is it that gives humans faith in one belife over another? Why do you feel that so many humans need this aspect in their life?

Answer 1

1. Absolute "truth" is hard to resist if one believes one is privy to it.
2. Religion provides transcendence, and it's easy.

Humans need faith, but not necessarily faith in religion. Since finding an alternative to religion can require a lot of work, people opt for what is easy.

Also, due to early indoctrination, it becomes difficult if not impossible for many people to think outside the box.

Answer 2

Because the thought of nothing after life cripples humans, and makes them feel inadequate. so they conjure up religion to have something to believe in, something to turn to when everything seems to go wrong as well as something for the afterlife. They use it as an explanation when certain things happen that they cannot explain (for example, beginning of all life)

People believe in one faith over another because they need something. Something in that faith clicks with them, and so the idea becomes a belief so strong that they think they are right, and everyone else is wrong. It's human characteristics, some just take it to different levels.

Answer 3

You'd be god-fearing too if I showed you a picture.
Then I told you about 2 options

1) infinite afterlife of bliss
2) infinite afterlife of Satan eating and excreting you.
Go ahead, look it up
I'm not joking this propaganda is documented.

And if I didn't, then I would be justified tying you to a stick
And slow cooking you .

Well we don't have that today, now do we!
Nooooo--- we're a "tolerant" society.

People need the belief as much as smokers need cigarettes.
When cigarettes were invented, did people think: My God,
How did people live before without these?

Yes-- until everyone including your 10-yr-old was smoking them.
And people dropped like flies from cancer.

Same thing--- YES, GOOD ANALOGY-- with religion. Instead of coping with your anxiety, you smoke a cigarette. Instead of coping with your anxiety, actually learning and doing something for THIS world-- the religious throw up their hands, and ask for forgiveness. And every sin is thus exonerated. Other religions?? Same damn things-- there is an absolute truth we only can believe on Earth but Know in death. BELIEVE! is the maxim. And who follows it better than peoples Trained to follow in public institutions. Who better to be God-fearing than those who are the waste of society. Who should not have been born. Who wait for death.

Are people inherently stupid? Is it genetic?
No. But the social apparatus is such that it has determined the largest sectors as inevitably being so. And what better way to give them "hope" and keep them in line, then to uphold the "truth" of God and gods-- certainly, they wouldn't stand for a GODLESS president. He could not be trusted.. Satan! Liar! Politician! the devout leader is just one more slap in the face to the masses. The anti-Machiavellian Machiavellians don't give a flying s h i t about you.

Answer 4

Well, the cynical answer is that we need a fantasy to give meaning to life or to help us deal with suffering. That's what is meant by calling religion "the opiate of the people".

A more optimistic view would acknowledge that there is something transcendent about the human condition that is not yet fulfilled. We feel a certain emptyness or incompletenes, and are compelled to seek that "Something" that is bigger than us that completes us.

You can see our search for completeness in the way we pursue work, fun, material and personal success, love relationships, etc. believing that these things will make us complete. From a religious point of view, this need is a transcdent need and can't be satisfied by material things. In pursuing these lesser things, though we may not know it, we're actually seeking a very special and unconditional form of "love", we're actually seeking God, Who is Love.

Religion is the expression of that transcendent need and helps us to understand it. It is also a handing on of teachings that help us to strive wel for that completeness.

Augustine of Hippo in the early centuries expressed the experience of his own incompeteness and eventual fullment when He prayed, "You created us for yourself. And our hearts are restless, until we rest in You."

Answer 5

Three reasons.

(1) Because generations of ancestors have told us [name of religion] is correct and all other religions and lack of religion are incorrect. We are told by lots and lots of people we respect that these are the answers to the questions we ask. When you have been told something 10,000 times it's hard not to believe it.

(2) Because we are told by those same people that there are dire consequences for not believing. If we don't believe we will go to hell. Most people figure it's better to err on the side of believing.

(3) Power. People like to feel like they have power over others. People want to show (a) I'm right and you're wrong about religion therefore I'm better than you; (b) We are both right but those guys over there are wrong, therefore our group is the best group; or finally (c) You ought to convert to my religion because it's right and then I will always be known to you and to others as the person who was so right first.

Answer 6

Go read your Bible and you will find in the book of lamentation that God put eternity in evereone's heart. We need to have a relationship wityh our creator if we believe there is a creator. Why do you think people still living today? Our existence do not depend on us. We are here to be a part of society. we may choose to be a good one or a bad one, for God gives human a choice to choose between wrong and right. God is in a control of life. It does not matter if you believe it or not, but everyone will know it for each one of us will die and our spirit will go somewhere. Our spirit will not go to the big bang. Our spirit will return to our creator to be judge. We all act by our spirit. Our physical body exist to enable us to live in this life. That is all it does. Our spirit will be judged one day. Humanity is so dependent on religion for God is a part of it. Our whole existence is on his hand

Answer 7

"Religion is the opiate of the masses" - Karl Marx

I think some people just need to feel connected to something greather than themselves. Religion today (and throughout history) has unfortunately been the cause of much suffering in the name of "God". Most of the current warring in the world right now can be attributed to religious conflict one way or another. Call it a "War on Terror" if you'd like, I think if you dig deeper you'll see it for what it is.

Religions origins are in unexplained natural events. When lightning struck and thunder roared, the first 'conscious' beings wondered what caused it. They saw a need to explain events that were beyond their comprehension at the time. Gods of water and fire and others were conjured up to help understand these natural events. Naturally people began to cling to these ideas, and as science progressed, ideas evolved. Not without resistance though.

Modern religion tried to deal with the questions of existence, being, and the beginnings of everything. Naturally, as our science progresses and starts to dispel some of these esoteric 'truths', people will resist. And of course there is the issue of my god is better than your god. People who take the word of Islam to be law feel that anyone that is not a Muslim is an 'Enemy of God' and should be dealt with in some manner or another appropo to that belief. Christians say 'Love Thy Neighbor as your brother' but has evolved to have qualifiers like "unless he/she is homosexual". It's all bullshit in the end anyway in my opinion, and I'd love to see people begin to think for themselves. I mean, humans currently only use 3-5% of our brain capacity. Imagine what we could do at 10...

Answer 8

Humans cling to irrational belief systems that are completely inadequate to informing them about their world and how to live in that world because religion does not require them to think further about anything. Religion is the easy, even if frequently wrong, answer to life's conundrums, especially for people who either can't or won't take the time to actually think about the world around them.

Answer 9

Humanity its deeply mixed with the Mind & Heart, If its depend upon religion means we cannot say its Humanity.

Answer 10

Do you beleive in what your teachers teach? Why do you ask questions to get answers. Your learn your whole life from other poeple. You could not live by yourseld without other. Humanity is so dependent upon religion because they beleive in their God to live and beleive in having the next lives.