Why do people still believe in religion...?

Question

Do you never stop and think you are just blindly believing what has been drilled into your head. Think about it, pretty much everyone that believes in a religion is because there parents told them it was right. Most are so ridiculous nowadays that you would be called a nut if you believed in that kind of stuff actually happened (Adam & Eve, Noahs Ark, The Rapture). there are millions of religions out there, how can you be so narrow minded as to think that one specific one is just right. The odds of your religion being right are the odds of you winning the lottery...that sure sounds like a reason to live a brain-washed life to me!

Answer 1

It helps people get through the day, basically.

Believing in it doesn't make it true, but that doesn't stop most people.

*xors

Answer 2

I'm sorry you see it this way. I am religious and I don't share your views.

Much of what you cite is either tradition or part of the mystery of God's universe. Do you ever stop to consider just how much in this world is truly mysterious?

People who lived long ago had one way of dealing with and presenting that mystery. Modern people may have another, but the mystery continues.

I am religious in part because my religious views make me a better person. If nothing in my beliefs were true, that would be sufficient reason for me to be religious.

I have no idea how God created us or how Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark fit into things, and my faith doesn't happen to include much about the Rapture. And maybe my belief isn't "right," but I have enough faith in my deity to believe he can forgive me if that's the case.

I don't think I'm narrow-minded--but you might be a little narrow-minded and possibly just a little short-sighted.

About thirty years ago I reached the stage you are probably at--of knowing so much I didn't need God any more. Then I learned a little more, and--guess what? I need God.

Maybe my God's a little nicer to me than yours was to you.

Answer 3

It really is odd and kind like a puzzle. Maybe it's part of our DNA. Beside being possibly the only animal to think in abstractions we also posses an infinite curiosity about everything-weather it be real or not. One common theme of most religions is Genesis, the birth of the cosmos and everything in it. It is an attempt to explain things life existence etc. Nowadays we have a new "religion" . Science. It takes a different approach to explaining the cosmos etc. It's the new kid on the block. The others have been around for thousands of years. They need time to be put to rest.

Answer 4

I don't believe in religion. I believe in God. I did my research and found that an intelligent designer makes more sense than us coming from nothing at all. If you see a drawing on the sidewalk you think that someone had to draw it, but the code in your DNA is nothing but a random sample of chromosomes that got together by chance. Yeah, that's the answer I want... the one that makes the least sense. But don't let my sarcasm get in the way of your research. Read absolutely EVERYTHING you can get your hands on about creationism vs evolution vs buddhism vs whatever you want. Make up your own mind. After you're done reading you can at least use a better excuse than the "brainwashed Christian" excuse that so many non-believers like to use because they have been brainwashed their whole lives to look down on Christianity while not looking into why the belief is strong enough to last throughout the ages.

Answer 5

Let me share my point of view with you.....
Lets say that you are an atheist and I am a believer.

As an atheist, you believe that there is no God and you dont perform any kind of spiritual activities in your lifetime on earth.

On the other hand, I as a believer, in my lifetime, perform what my religion tells me to do.

Then....we die.

Probability #1
THERE IS NO GOD

Lucky you and lucky me right?
No problem there.
We will not be punished or rewarded for the bad and good deeds we made because there will be no hell and heaven.
Why?
Because there is no higher power that can decide who goes where.
Your theory was right and mine was not.

Probability #2
THERE IS GOD.

Bad news for you and good news for me.

It turns out that there is GOD.
It turns out that there is life after death.
It turns out that all our bad and good deeds will counted.
It turns out that having the right religion and performing the spiritual activies do matter.
It turns out that there is heaven and hell.

You see....for me, being a believer is about being smart.
Think of it as an investment for your after life.

I got nothing to loose by being a believer.
If there is no God...I'm safe.
If there is a God....I'm also safe.

Cheers

Answer 6

Religion is nothing. Jesus is all.
Jesus is asking you today, Who do you say that I am?
That’s the main question,-------- the one which will determine your eternal soul’s destination.

You know, He was not a good man or a teacher as many grudgingly speak of Him.
He was one of three things.
1.He was a lunatic, a madman, suffering from delusions of grandeur; or
2.He was a liar, a deceiver trying to pass himself off as something he was not, or,
3.He is Lord of all Life, and He holds all Life in His hands now and forever.
There are no other possibilities—Because He made His three great claims: “I am God, I will raise the dead, and I will be the final judge.”
Accept Jesus as Saviour, or suffer the consequences of sin forever.

Answer 7

I don't believe in religion. Nothing was drilled into my head when I was younger... Dad was Jewish, Mom was Catholic... we enjoyed Christmas (and Santa Claus) and Hanukkah and Easter and Passover... the whole works!

I asked God if he was real, when I was 18 years old. I, agnostically, looked up at an empty sky and said, "If you're really real, show me... by yourself, no people 'witnessing' to me."

Over the course of that summer (1979), NO ONE spoke to me about God unless I initiated the questions... and that happened just once. Everything else came by revelation, little by littlle, me getting a hold of a Bible ("stealing" one at one point--- then finding it was being offered for free)... God, himself convinced me of his reality... and of Jesus' messiahship... when I was 18...
I don't BELIEVE in God... I KNOW in him, beyond the shadow of all doubt...

Answer 8

Did you like to believe in Santa? Don't you wish you wouldn't have stopped believing, even if you know the idea is crazy? Same thing with religion, they really really want to believe. That doesn't make it true though.

Answer 9

It's the possibilities that are so alluring. The human mind always searches for that perfect safety net (but in different ways).

Answer 10

Millions of people thruout the ages have believed in religion.Many died rather than denounce their faith. The fact that millions today believe suggest there must be SOMETHING to it. People who believe are not dumb, blind, or uneducated. They have found something worthwile.