Fellow atheists....?

Question

What do you think are some of the primary reasons that these delusional people actually believe in their religion?

Answer 1

And you expect people to respect your decision to not belief in God by offending them?

Answer 2

You can't get to full of yourself on these issues. There are very valid human reasons why people believe in God.
Religion provides a sense of community to many of it's believers and that is actually good
Prior to the invention of empirical science religion provided some plausible answers to the way the world works. The fact that those answers are now known to be wrong is not an issue.
And of course religion provides an answer to big question of what happens when we die.
Once again whether or not the answer given is empirically true is not an issue to believers. The given answer simply must be positive and plausible and above all reassuring.
I chose to be an atheist because the idea of God is presented as absolute empirical Truth and of course it is not.
Were Christians to present the Bible as what it is which is a book of fiction with a good historical back story they would be more believable. Instead it is presented as all true all the time and I know it's not so therefore I can't believe in it.

Answer 3

You give us atheists a bad name and a bad image. Just because you don't believe what they believe doesn't give you the right to bash them. Delusional? Some of them are radical but don't stereotype. Christians always stereotype about us atheists that we are angry intolerant godless bastards. Don't get down to their level. They believe what they believe because they were raised that way and they feel there has to be some sort of creator to this complex world. Let them believe that. If it doesn't infringe on us then don't bother with it.

Answer 4

Years of brainwashing in "Sunday school."

After growing up christian (or in any other faith) it takes courage and effort to tell your parents and friends that you no longer believe. It is far easier to buy into Pascal's wager. Why not pretend to believe?

Once you've bought into that, you will see benefits which you can attribute to god even though they are truly only chance. It's the same psychology that keeps people coming back to Vegas. Your next prayer may be the big jackpot.

The other driver is the fear people have of dying. Believers of many faiths have convinced themselves that they (and their loved ones) will not die. This is a powerful enough drive that people have committed mass suicide in the belief that the will continue in some sort of afterlife. Again, it takes courage that believers lack to say that your time on Earth (and that of your loved ones) is limited and then you will exist no more.

Answer 5

1) It's what they were taught to believe.
2) They don't want to believe there is no afterlife.
3) When something bad happens, it can be explained away as god's will, which is easier for them to understand than "crap happens".

Answer 6

Indoctrination as children, or at other vulnerable periods in their lives. Fear of the reality of death (either their own or someone else's). A desire for there to be a 'purpose' beyond what they make for themselves.

Answer 7

When you develop in a certain environment, you believe that environment to be normal and you assimilate that into your programming. It works the same for abuse, neglect, radicals, other cultures, etc.

Answer 8

Because they want to believe that there is some supernatural being that cares about them. They just want to avoid reality.

Answer 9

They've been brainwashed and they surround themselves with a community of fellow washees

Answer 10

Freedom of religion?

Answer 11

have a look at this website:

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

its long but worth reading. Basically he proves that there is a particular personality type that is resistant to thinking.