Why do humans need a higher power ?

Answer 1

we dont, some of us are weak though and need something to steal and drain the blood from.

Answer 2

Humans need a higher power because they are weak. Some humans need a higher power to rely on the get them through the day and the promise of a wonderful afterlife to justify the lack of impact they have made on the world.

Answer 3

Good question Jung. What is interesting is that all cultures have had a higher power, all through time. Every group somehow comes up with a base and origin for their own religion. The Egyptians, the people of Easter Island, remote tribes across the Pacific islands, the people of Pompeii, the Canary Islands, ancient Europeans, ancient China, the Incas, virtually all groups came up with a religion. Although they were separated by time and geography, they all developed a religion of their own, usually centered around a higher being. This - to me - suggests that we as humans, are somehow psychologically hard-wired, and pre-disposed to accept higher beings than ourselves. Wish I knew why that was.

Answer 4

Not all humans have such a need. Many recognize that what others call a "higher power" is innate within us... it is not something outside and separate. Humanity has endless personal and mental power and can manifest success, wealth and happiness easily IF our minds can be focused and directed in a manner that is enriching and positive to both ourselves and others.

If you think about it, what do most people talk about and focus on? Ugly things such as hatred, separatism, superiority and "better than thou", cheating, lying, winning at any cost, making a profit at any cost, manipulating, controlling, their own pleasure at the expense of others, etc.

None of these thought patterns and behaviors are honorable. And unless you can embrace your negativity and behavior and accept that you bring most of your pain on yourself via your choices, it is much easier to point the finger of blame at someone or something else as being the cause.

The phrase "God don't put more on you than you can handle" is a perfect example.

Answer 5

Over the ages, we have demonstrated that we desire a higher power to blame or to save us.
I think this is motivated by the deadly randomness of being. Someone's baby dies, the next mother wants to ensure her child will live so she prays to the gods or goddesses of whatever. Our fate is so much like a runaway train ride that we keep hoping SOMEONE is in charge, since we individuals are so clearly not.

I hope we are right and there really is a Primer Mover, but if there is, that Mover really has a lot to answer for.
Keep thinking. Love you, Sammy

Answer 6

Humans need a higher power to give reason and purpose to the universe as well as themselves. It also gives them a future after death through the belief and transmigration of the soul.

Answer 7

It's a sort of human 'buck-passing'; 'Higher Powers' can be blamed for failure or credited for success.
For some It is a bulwark against Fear...of the Unknown.

Answer 8

because most people need an explanation for the unexplainable. they someon to blame when things are out their control and go all awry. people are scared to face the truth for what it is;like how unfair the world is today. belief in a higher power helps people to get through the painful times.

Answer 9

It provides comfort and, as Lacan and Freud were fond of saying, it served as a displacement of the feeling of annihilation which were attendant upon our conscious knowledge of our own mortality.

Answer 10

I'm not sure we do.

A different approach, of course, is to ask whether one might actually be there, whether we need it or not.

*If* a deity exists, my opinion on that matters less than their opinion on me.

Leaving out all the universal mind, pantheistic and world-as-illusion options. (It gets complicated).

Answer 11

Because no one knows what happens after you die, and that's scary. Humans need to believe in a story that tells them they aren't going to disappear into nothingness when they're gone. Whether it's believing in God, or Buddah or the paranormal, it all tells us that there's something else for us to be after we die.