why do you think people believe in god?

Answer 1

Its a comforting thought to believe that a entity could create the entire universe and still care about your day and love you.

Everyone wants to be loved... and the idea of the "universe" loving you is pretty nifty i suppose.

People just cant get over that WANTING a thing to be true has no bearing on it ACTUALLY being true.

Answer 2

1/ To answer unsolvable questions.
'Why are we here?'
Where did we come from?'
'What happens when we die?'

2/ People are easily scared. Religion dates back to the time before sciences. People could not explain most natural phenomena, so they created gods. Not just because that would explain how this phenomena came to be (Lightening = Thor throwing Mjolnir) but also because this gave a certain power over the elements. By pleasing the gods they could ask for favours and so 'control' these phenomena. This made the world a less threatening place to live. They thought.

3/ Because people nowadays are STILL scared. We want to believe there is someone who can help us when we're in trouble.
Most humans find the idea of dying very uncomfortable. Why? Because we don't know what will happen. We are scared of the great unknown, and so we pray to a god, so as to please him. We hope to control death that way. We can't stop it, but we can shape our afterlife.

4/ Some people do not want to be useless. Being here just because their parents had sex doesn't seem to be enough. They want a reason behind their being here, and that reason is god.
Quite understandable. Imagine you would work somewhere where you're completely dispensable. Wouldn't be very nice, would it?

Apart from those reasons, I suppose the cults themselves are made because it gives the priests power. They can order others around, and demand money. If not, you will go to hell.
They grow rich. What more reason do they need?
From time to time there are people who do good deeds, thinking this will make the world a better place. After they die their memory will of course be abused by cults, but even while they live some say they are inspired by god. And maybe some of them are. Though I believe their strength comes from inside rather than outside. I can imagine such people believe in god because they think they wouldn't be able to make it otherwise. Psychology is quite strong.
It makes me think of riding a bycicle. When my father taught me, he would run after the bike, holding it up. At some point I looked back and realised he wasn't holding me anymore. I fell over straight away. I could do it on my own, but only as long as I believed my father held me. Maybe some people have the same experience with god. They think it's his strenght guiding them, while actually they are doing it themselves.

Answer 3

It provides comfort, takes away fear, answers questions that there may not be another answer for right now, it provides a positive feeling in a sometimes negative world, it makes people feel less 'alone', it fills a 'void' in many peoples lives. I don't think it's a bad thing because it makes so many people feel better about life. The other reason being that someone else (usually the parents) tell them that it's true so they believe at a young age and it's difficult to entirely erase that belief sometimes, even if you want to.

*I like that answer above about that book which explains that some people 'see' God around them. I know that's true since so many people say they feel that way. I just know I don't 'see' God when I look around, I see nature, life, etc.. I don't see the source whether it be scientific or from a Creation.

Answer 4

I think people instinctively know that there is a higher power. They can look around them at the beauty of nature and know that this all didn't just happen. They question about their own purpose in life and if this life is all that there is. They wonder about death and why things happen like they do. Then they hear in some way that there is a book with the answer to all these questions and more. That book is the Bible and it tells about Who the creator of all these things is. It even tells how He did it. Once you know Who made the world and everything in it and discover that He not only has a plan for this world but a plan for you personally, it settles a lot of questions. I have heard it said that we are created with a desire to worship within us. We find something to worship whether it is another person, money, a job, or the things money can buy but none of those things can satisfy completely. I've heard that when tribal people have been found who have never seen anything of civilization that they worship something. It is just our nature. Once we have the truth about God then we can either accept it or go ahead and worship something else. The first of the 10 commandments is that we can have no other gods before Him. We have to decide if we are going to believe in God and serve Him or worship another god of our own choosing, which is idolatry.

Answer 5

People can see evidence of God all around us. The whole world is a testament of his existence. If the world was not made by design than how could it be so beautifully diverse and glorious? People beleive in the Big Bang I know, that there were all these particals and ingridients in space and they just happened to combine the right way to make a planet filled with life. That is like saying that if you found a pocket watch on the beach you would think that there were all these differnt parts and gears to the watch in the ocean and they came together just right by coincedence, not by the design of a watchmaker! Absurd! God made the world and everything in it as well as us. If you read the bible you will learn about God and his works.

Answer 6

Because God believes in people

Answer 7

Scenerio 1, Atheist: Humanity is naturally curious, and we know there must be something more than this life, so beleif in God came. We need to feel protected by a benevolent creator.

Scenerio 2, Religious: Humanity was created with a natural void in ourselves that is only filled through faith in God or Gods.

Answer 8

Check out Michael Shermer's book How We Believe for some insight into this question. People say THEY believe in god for one set of reasons (e.g. they "see" god in the world around them), while they think OTHER people believe in god for reasons like comfort, their upbringing, and so on.

Answer 9

I'm more interested in why you posted this in Mythology & Folklore. I'm also interested in if you deliberately used the lower case 'g' or if you meant the upper-cased "God." Either way, the word you used denotes male oriented monotheism.

And that doesn't answer your question at all. In the modern age, it's because it's what we are taught. In ancient times, it was a way to explain the hows and whys things came to be.

Answer 10

As Milk_Shake said believing in God is like a holiday or tradition. Everyone does it for some reason, the reason maybe unknown to us but to that person it means something. God has changed my life tremendously and it's hard for me not believe in him when I can see what he has done for me and my family everyday.