My hypothesis

[SteveII]

You are assigning reasons why people become Christians--all of them derogatory. Talk about condescending. 

I wrote this a while back:

While not universally true, I believe it is the appeal of Jesus as a person coupled with his teachings that draws people. Why do these things resonate with a large number of people?

It is obvious that we are somehow wired to believe in God/higher power/supernatural/purpose/destiny etc. Of course you will say this is a product of our evolution. There are several theories centered around the adaptive values of religion (social solidarity for one). However, these theories presuppose naturalism. So the result of this reasoning is that if God did exist or did not exist, we would still be wired to believe God exists.

I think another reason this resonates with people is Jesus' main message that forgiveness, personal peace, a relationship with God, and eternal life is possible.
a. there are a lot of people, who have had tough experiences that find the forgiveness and internal peace very appealing.
b. when you meet someone who has been a Christian a long time and exemplifies Jesus' teachings and shares how God has been a constant comfort and support to them in their daily lives, it is very appealing.
c. eternal life, how can you beat that? This component also helps you make sense/cope of the shortness of life, tragedies, and pain endured while we are here.

Another appealing quality of Christianity is having the question of purpose and place in the universe answered. a. with atheism, at best, you are a happy accident with no purpose that will very shortly die and cease to exist.
b. contrast that with the purpose of man is to "Glorify God and enjoy him forever". We were created for a reason and daily life has purpose and you really want others to know what you have found.

In addition, Jesus modeled his teachings of love, compassion, and forgiveness for your fellow man and in doing so set an example that, if aspired to, would result in a very fulfilling life. Perhaps you are not old enough, but once you contemplate the brevity of life, finding fulfillment becomes important.

And none of these reasons require anything more than what wishful thinking requires.  Believing because it feels good.  I am old enough to contemplate the brevity of life, and it's too brief to accept on the word of an oft-edited old book that there is a god.  Especially when it seems that most of the believers I run across have much more of the attributes in my description.  Having a "personal relationship" with a god, or just believing a god is there, seems to be the biggest decision one could make in one's life.  But most I've run across have given it less thought than where they want to go on vacation next year.  I've rarely seen a positive change in behaviour.  Mostly it's just a way of being judgemental while proclaiming that I know what god wants and you aren't it if you don't believe.  I think very few actually believe.  They believe in believing. You can see that in the persecution complex so many have, shouting religious intolerance when anything they want to be called "practicing their religion" is challenged. And in the redefinition of words like "evidence", "fact", "love", etc to try to fit their stories.  It's embarrassing.

This is only "believing because it feels good" if the claims of Jesus are false. Actually, even that is not true. As long as people believe the claims to be true, their belief is based on the perceived truth value of the claim and not because "it feels good".

It seems you are judging an ideology on the how well a sampling of its adherents have put it into practice and asserting motives beyond what you could possibly know. Seems like you are full of opinions with very little reasoning and facts.

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You are breaking the two things up: patterning oneself after Christ and serving God. I think the are two sides of the same coin. My point was the following Christ teachings results in an overall purpose for life. Do you think there is a secular parallel?

There are plenty of secular parallels, from living a life of virtue, one driven by agape and selfless love, to one driven by rational self interest.  But this is to misunderstand the nature of purpose.  Purpose exists to drive activity.  It need not be transcendent or unitary to do this.  One may start out with one purpose and in fulfilling it, graduate to another.  It doesn't make it an inferior purpose because the person's life is divided into different periods.

I understand and agree. Some people find purpose within themselves. However, I think there is a group of people who struggle to find it in a way that satisfies their idea of it.

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Christianity just tells you your purpose in life is to serve god, which doesn't really answer the question.

There's no reason to believe life has some awesome, singular purpose.

The atheist is free to find his own reasons for living.

Sent from my LGL52VL using Tapatalk

Except many people apparently can't cope with the Existential Nihilism that atheism leads to. Perhaps that is why, despite the "information age" your message isn't resonating with as many people as you might have thought.