Can someone explain to why, in this world of technology and science that there are so many people who still .?

Question

Why do so many people still retain their primative superstitious religious beliefs that were created while people still thought the world was flat?

Christians, please understand that you are not the majority on this earth. More than half the earths population live in China and India.

Answer 1

There is speculation that there is a 'god center' in our brain that is left over from those days when religion was a needed philosophy. Kind of like the urge to have sex, people have an urge to believe in something.

If this is the case, I've evolved.

Really, it's a good question and I think that people are just so afraid of death being final and they are brainwashed from birth to believe. You'd think they would realize about the same time as they realize that Santa doesn't exist , that god doesn't exist.

Answer 2

Good place to start would be the part in The Bible about one part of Hell. Give philisophicall voting rights to the denizens of Hell and add courts. Moving on lack of education is not the full explanation for religious belief remaining but perhaps because science is not seen as the tool which can create given time from this Century onwards by either the religious or those who make use of science. philosophy might be an answer to ending it as it is not an absolute as opposed to a creator.Given time new Creators will likely come on the scene or an old idea repackaged. The Environmentalists use science to describe what is considered on of the ancient creators Earth. If a person truly values their home not as a religion but as necessary to survival that is the answer as The Earth is real. Trouble is that without worship of the Earth people cannot understand what it is . Not only that other religions distort the meaning of it or ignore it.One religion does have a basis in fact that of Earth Worship. the sky must also be taken care of as it has been polluted or harmed by jets . This is the same place that a religion also believes God lives in. So apply science and campaign for the preservation of sky and earth.might do something.

Answer 3

There are a number of reasons. Probably first and foremost, religious faith is a phenomenon that seems remarkably impervious to rational thought, empiricism, critical analysis, objective and impartial viewing, or demands for evidence. I've seen people who are otherwise quite rational, but their religious beliefs get compartmentalized away, immune from any serious or in-depth self-analysis.

A close second, is that I think many people simply WANT to believe. What a belief ultimately comes down to, is a desire for something to be true, regardless of whether it really is or not. Because people WANT to believe, this means the belief is actually a form of emotion. This is another reason why one's own beliefs so often don't get the analytical treatment.

Thirdly, religion tends to be hereditary. A good majority of people are the same religion, and often the same denomination, as their parents, for no other reason than that was what they were raised to believe. Any belief drilled into a child at a young age can be pretty tough to lose later on.

Also, religion and the church still fill important psychological niches for a lot of people. The ideas of a soul and afterlife provide comfort against the finality of death. Churches provide important social networking and bonding, for people who otherwise might not have as many chances to socialize with others. This is part of the reason why rural areas are often highly religious, because other opportunities for social bonding are limited.

I think religion is on the decline in the US and elsewhere, albeit slowly. Atheists still tend to be the most hated group for whom it is still considered OK to discriminate against. Still, I think atheism is very slowly gaining acceptance the way homosexuality started to gain acceptance about 20-25 years ago. I think the Religious Right senses this too, because there has been a corresponding upswing in hard-core, evangelical xtianity, which I believe is a backlash reaction against the growing secularism.

I don't think you'll see atheism as a majority view in the US for a few centuries, at least. Especially if the Religious Right can succeed in pulling us down into another Dark Age through successful propagation of their anti-science beliefs and dilution of school science programs. But I think that in the long run, we are slowly moving in the right direction, towards a more rational mindset where religion is restored to its equal standing with the other mythologies of the past.

P.S. To aera: The first thing I would say is, "Oh ****!" Followed by, "How did I manage to go from 65mph to 0 in just 15 feet?"

Answer 4

Some children never outgrow the need for security blankets and they always need someone to blame when things go wrong - psychologically it's all perfectly understandable ... including why so many xians visit psychologists trying to rationalise their paranoia with reality.

They develop their paranoia over years of believing there’s an InvisibleSkyGuy watching everything they do, think and say, 24/7, whilst whispering: you'd better suck up to me or I'll send you to hell.

The love for their ‘god’ is based on fear of what’ll happen if they don’t.
Love under threat or duress is not love – it’s fear.

Mindless superstitions are programmed into children at a young age and it’s only courageous, strong and intelligent people who can rationalise their way out.

[edit]
65mph and stopped in 15 feet? Great car; fantastic reflexes.

Answer 5

Imagine the following scenario: you are driving in your car, going along at about 65 mph. There are a few other cars on the road. You have the radio cranked up. Good song. The sun is shining. A huge boulder falls out of the sky and lands 15 feet in front of your car. You stop the car in time. What is the first thing you say?

Yep, that's my answer.

Answer 6

Because people are reading that book called the Bible still, and they take it all verbatim, and they don't question the validity of these stories. Do you honestly believe that if we were made in God's image, that a human like one of us could create the planets, sun, stars, the huge oceans, mountains and continents and the entire galaxy. We are told in the bible that God did all this...yet, a man who is made in the image of God could not accomplish this...not even all of Humankind could accomplish this. And , let's say God is a humongous Spirit [and we are all just small images of Him/Her], then He/She would have squashed Hitler like a bug before he could do what he did during World War 2.

Answer 7

That's a tremendous question! Maybe there is more to superstitious religious belief than we previously thought.

Answer 8

because people dont want to think about it.

they just want an answer they can believe in. they want their to be a definite right and wrong. its a mush brain way of living out your life. that said a lot of very smart people believed in the Jesus story.

Dr Mr Luther King was a very smart guy and for the life of me I cannot figure out why he believed in Jesus.

Answer 9

Lack of knowledge is the simple reason. Belief too makes them hold on because of fear.

Answer 10

Cause it's hard to believe that we only have ourselves to blame.