Don't Understand The Appeal Of Christianity To People

[Spooky]

Believing that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, is one of the few strings that connect 2.5 billion people on the planet. Everything else is up in the air.

I thought it was the fact that humanity has only existed long enough that we're all technically 30th or something cousins? 

[robvalue]

It's just a childhood indoctrination thing. At worst your parents will drag you to church, and if you don't toe the line you're punished.

In my case it was more of a chance to spend extra time with grannie, while she told me stories about how much Jesus loves me. I also believed Santa and the Easter Bunny were real at the time, so stories about talking donkeys and getting a bunch of animals on a boat and someone spending three days inside a whale weren't so far fetched.

I don't understand why other people don't just grow out of it though the same way they grow out of belief in Santa Claus as I did, even with the child indoctrination. The whole thing is so unrealistic and completely contradicted by evidence.

Why didn't child indoctrination ever work on me? 

It's a very difficult question. Although I wasn't religiously indoctrinated, I was indoctrinated in other ways which affected me psychologically and still do today. It can be really powerful. My indoctrination was much more closely knit to reality, making it easier to stick. I think sceptical brains reject religious indoctrination because it is so ridiculously far fetched.

You're right, the religious beliefs are totally absurd and at odds with all evidence that we have. I think they survive partly because they never come under scrutiny, they are designed to be non-falsifiable. No matter what science tells us, people can just say, "Well yes, but God did all that". And even prayer is set up so that there is no failure criteria. So because they can't fail as such, they continue to co-exist with the real understanding of reality. And because they can't be proved wrong, the fear of letting go of them is enough in a lot of cases to keep the superstition going. My wife is not religious, but she falls into the same mental traps. She was brought up by superstitious parents, and now she doesn't dare break certain meaningless rules "just in case something bad happens".

[KevinM1]

Catholic church in NH is the worst. A lot of the buildings are colonial, or made to look and feel colonial. So they're dark and somber. The services are a bunch of white people droning in unison like the fucking Borg. For all the talk about spirits and souls and things that are supposed to be joyous and uplifting, the actual practice of mass is creepy and depressing. And that's not even getting to the zombie snack time.

I'd rather go see the doctor than go to church.

[Minimalist]

I don't understand why other people don't just grow out of it though the same way they grow out of belief in Santa Claus as I did, even with the child indoctrination.

Santa Claus does not have a whole bunch of overpaid scumbags constantly insisting he is real.

[KevinM1]

I don't understand why other people don't just grow out of it though the same way they grow out of belief in Santa Claus as I did, even with the child indoctrination.

Santa Claus does not have a whole bunch of overpaid scumbags constantly insisting he is real.

Santa also doesn't threaten people with eternal torture for not towing the party line.

[dyresand]

Santa Claus does not have a whole bunch of overpaid scumbags constantly insisting he is real.

Santa also doesn't threaten people with eternal torture for not towing the party line.

Also if you have been bad at least you still get something. You know coal to put into your furnace or metaphorically melt that cold heart.

[Randy Carson]

When I was a kid and had to go to church I just found it boring.
I thought that the hymns sucked and din't like having to sing, didn't like church organ music or having to say prayers.
I didn't connect at all with the stories of the bible.
Wouldn't you think the whole thing of going to church would have evolved to be something fun and enjoyable in order for people to want to do it.

Perhaps it has. Has it been awhile since you last went? Here's Hillsong Church in California (note the band onstage):

[Fake Messiah]

Religion has hijacked the evolved tendency of humans to accept authority when they’re young, something that would have enhanced the survival of our ancestors (learning is a good way to avoid the dangers of experience). Because when you're born you don't know anything and have to listen to your parents to survive like "Don't play near that lake cuz crock will eat you." and those kids that didn't listen didn't pass the disobedient gene. Similar if you hear a rustle in the bushes, you’re more likely to survive (or get food) if you believe it came from another animal than from a gust of wind. These beliefs about conscious agents in nature can easily be transferred to things like lightning and earthquakes. Because our ancestors lacked naturalistic explanations for such things, conjectures about supernatural humanlike beings or spirits might follow. So afterward it is really hard for lots of people to part something they learned in childhood as "untouchable" (sacred, if you want) truth.

And so if you’re born in Saudi Arabia, in all likelihood you’ll be brought up Muslim, accepting its doctrines as true. If born in Utah, the chances of your becoming a Mormon are high (around 60 percent), and in Brazil you’re likely to become a Catholic. To a very large extent, which religion you accept and which you reject are accidents of birth. And after you’ve been religious for years, and surrounded by those who believe likewise, you become emotionally invested in your faith’s truth. This makes you more susceptible to confirmation bias and less likely to be skeptical about your beliefs.

Yeah but all the rituals of going to church and the theology of Christianity are so unappealing I don't even understand why people form or sustain any emotional attachment to it. I went to a religious church school where they taught you stories of the Bible as if they were fact and I became an atheist by the time I was aged 10 and it never caused me discomfort to not believe any of it because I had no attachment to it in the first place.

The single only thing I can see in its appeal to adults to believe in life after death but you have no fear of death when you're a child so that doesn't apply when you're growing up.

Well you'd be surprised what fear of eternal suffering will do to people. You think this self deluding people admit to themselves that it's boring? And one of the tactics of Catholic Church is not only blame others with same crimes they commit so that spotlight moves off them, but also to call stuff like that boring mass a celebration - so it's a party actually
You should read what Alan Alda wrote when he was a catholic, how he was afraid to even touch the God Cracker with his teeth and then one day he just said "The Fuck With it."

And also there are pilgrimages to holy places and Marian apparitions to introduce at least some change in that abhorring monotony of Catholic mass where people can walk on their knees, walk long distances; or visit Papal castle - it's like Disneyland for bored Catholics.

[Lek]

When I was a kid and had to go to church I just found it boring.
I thought that the hymns sucked and din't like having to sing, didn't like church organ music or having to say prayers.
I didn't connect at all with the stories of the bible.
Wouldn't you think the whole thing of going to church would have evolved to be something fun and enjoyable in order for people to want to do it.

I know what you mean about long and boring church services. I passed out a couple times in church as a kid. Now I attend a church in which I thoroughly enjoy the services. The thing is, it sounds to me that you never experienced christianity, as your complaints are about hating the church services and not identifying with bible stories, rather than understanding why Christ came and what he did for us.

[Minimalist]

Of course sane people don't think he did shit for anyone.