Why do people believe in God?

[downbeatplumb]

I've never seen a satisfying answer to why people believe in god/gods.

The answers given always leave me open mouthed going 'huh'.

They all seem to boil down to they believe because they want to and because they want to they can see 'evidence' for god/gods.

Being godless heathens we just cant see the truth, if only we'd look with better eyes we'd see it too.

I'm winding myself up here so I'll take a few deep breaths and calm down.

[The_Flying_Skeptic]

hmm I didn't mean those fake reasons... I was talkin REAL reasons

What fr0do ...like........

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You will be vilified if you don't believe as your neighbours

You will be killed if you disagree with the group

You will have no social status within the group

You will have no access survival resources UNLESS you believe as the group believes

You will have no ability to reproduce UNLESS you believe as the group believes

You WILL be hounded down and persecuted and killed on the whim and fancy of the 'group'

There is no benefit other than social conformity to believing in the social deity.

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Sounds like your Atheism would promote the same thing Kitchen

...and what is this social deity you speak of??

There is actual benefit from genuine belief. It's why people really believe. Don't kid yourself.

duh, the magical power of prayer! muahahaha!

[mar_garu]

People believe in god for many reasons.

1: because its 'easy' in christian/muslim/hindu or whatever land its just easier to follow the herd
2: because it offers easy answers to difficult questions.
3: because people find the idea of an afterlife less scary than the truth.
4: because people can be dumb

Christian perspective:
I think this answer may just be too easy. There are two ways to believe in God. One is blindly and the other is through reason. Obviously the latter is most preferrable and the way I believe God would have liked his followers to believe in him- which is why he gave them free will and left the Bible, full of his teachings.

Unfortunately religion the institution such as the Catholic Church, has in a way corrupted the purity of the prinical goal (they did many stupid things, they are humans afterall) and used the Bible as a tool for 'political' power that has in many ways discredited the Christian faith.

Once you start reading the Bible (which I think you've probably never done) you can see that it is a powerful book, one you will require intellect and reasoning for. I think only after doing so will you be able to decide whether or not you believe in God.

It does not offer easy answers to difficult questions, but makes you question more and more. Why do you think people study it for years and years. If this was true we wouldn't have scholars!!

The idea of an afterlife is scarier than the idea that this is it. Wouldn't it just be easier to live our 80years or so on this earth and then just die and be done with it all? I think it would be. Life is short, You've got to Live and enjoy it!! But to think that there may be an eternity?! isn't this a harder idea to get your mind around and more importantly a harder idea to accept as truth?

People can be dumb and these people unfortunately are the ones who at times may give Christians a bad name because they do not know the scriptures /teachings and make up their own practice of what they 'understand' it to mean. Worldwide, these represent the majority of christians because when one is born into a religion (most christians are), one becomes complacent and does not bother to read more or to truly understand what it is in they have faith in. ie. BLIND FAITH. They just call themselves christian because they were born into a christian family but when you question them they know or understand no more than an atheist does at times!!

At the end of the day, no-one really knows what is out there! All we can do as intelligent human beings is to reason and educate ourselves if this is a question you really care about. Don't just read one-sided veiws eg Richard D but get a balanced idea and then find your own conclusion.

Other than that all we can do is live our lives well and not harm others. In the bible God asks only two things: To LOVE him and to LOVE our brother and sisters as much as he loves us. These are his two greatest commandments above anything else!! and as human beings we cannot even follow these two 'simple' things... maybe because he knew these two would be the hardest for us to follow!! It is ironic. Can you imagine how this world would be like if we did these two things? To respect life: all of his creatiosn; the planet (no more global warming), the animals (no more animal cruelity), each other (no more wars over oil!, child soldiers, female mutiliation, child abuse, rape, abuses of human rights...) isn't this a worthwhile goal??

I have nothing against athesits. In the bible it teaches that we are no-one to judge others. As a christian- one is not on any pedestal, on the contrary, humility is what is valued. I think you shouldn't hate what people believe in. I understand you can be angry at ignorance (athesits, christians, muslims etc... can be ignorant people) but please do not confuse that with hating peoples FAITH.

Above all, LOVE is God's key message. If you ever get a chance please read: 1Corinthians, chapter 13 in the New Testament. Perhaps this will give you a better understanding of what it is you are fighting against! Then you can decide what is truly evil.

I wish you all the best in this life we're both going to have to face and hope that you can equip yourself with the tools to live it wisely.

[Paul the Human]

Once you start reading the Bible (which I think you've probably never done) you can see that it is a powerful book, one you will require intellect and reasoning for. I think only after doing so will you be able to decide whether or not you believe in God.

Perhaps you do not realize this, but most of the atheists that regularly engage in religious discussions (like you find here) have more than simply read the bible(s). We have read and reread those books and studied religion and belief from many different angles. Our lack of belief in gods, in most cases, is based upon some serious research and consideration. We have not simply decided not to believe... we have tried to find a reason, any reason, to believe and have discovered none.

The moral of the story is this: Do not assume that an atheist is simply not educated about god. Many of us know far more about the religion than those calling themselves believers.