Why people are religious

[Mystic]

They have the opportunity to be a lovely person such as CL, KP and Deidre, or they can waste it by being a judgemental prick who says I'm simply wrong and evil and preaches bullshit at me.

I take it you mean me by that?

[robvalue]

No, I didn't. I wasn't referring to anyone in particular with the second part. I'm sorry if you thought I meant you.

[account_inactive]

Why is the sky blue?

[robvalue]

God painted it blue.

I might try being religious, answering questions is so easy!

In fact, the primitives writing the bible actually thought the sky was made of water, because it was blue. Seriously. They thought it came down during Noah's Flood. I have a secret blackmail file on the bible, full of huge errors and horrible unjust malice. It's called the bible

[jcvamp]

A lot has happened since I last looked at this thread, and I can't answer everything that has been said.

Regarding my original post, I don't like to generalise; I was speaking from personal experience. I acknowledge that there are a lot of factors when it comes to forming beliefs, but my personal experience is that when people justify their beliefs to me, it ends up boiling down to some kind of emotional response, be it fear, a sense of comfort, or whatever.

I don't think that people are religious because they're any more flawed than any other human being, nor do I think that it's because they are stupid, but I do think that there is a flaw in their logic. You might think that I'm being arrogant or putting people down when I say that I think there's a flaw in their logic, but if you believe that your conclusion is logical and correct, it means that someone reaching a different conclusion must have some kind of flaw in their logic. To a religious person, my logic is also flawed. I don't think that should be taken as an insult. I'm perfectly willing to accept it if my logic is flawed, and adjust my position accordingly.

In regards to indoctrination, it isn't necessarily done in an aggressive brainwashy way. The ideas that someone is exposed to growing up have an influence on them, and it shapes the way that they think. If you're surrounded by people who speak about an idea as though it is fact, you will tend to accept that idea as fact. Religious people believe that their beliefs are fact, and therefore talk about them in that way. The children around them will tend to accept those beliefs as fact also.

I think everyone is entitled to their opinion, and certainly to their beliefs, and I am not trying to insult them when I say that I disagree. I am honestly trying to understand why people hold certain beliefs, because I think it's important to understand the motivation when it comes to discussing those beliefs.

I have asked people why the believe in God, for example, and the response is usually either an attempt to give a logical explanation, or a statement of personal revelation. When it comes to their 'logical explanation', I always find fault with it. That's why none of them have swayed me. When it comes to 'personal revelation', I don't fully understand what the person is getting at. It sounds as though they have some feeling or experience and equate it with God, and to me, those feelings and experiences are easily explainable as something else.

[The Grand Nudger]

It appears to be a compulsion that's been with us as long as we've been "us".  We have believing brains, and we are rewarded (both environmentally and internally) for the ritual behaviors and propositions that, added together, are called religion when they reference a god. IMO, "god" and religion back-doored our biology. It's an alternative expression of traits which arose for other (less magical) applications.

[SofaKingHigh]

There are some top answers here, but i would just answer the question with one word; Fear.

[robvalue]

Personally I think that some people are reluctant to say the real reason for fear of ridicule, or indeed they don't actually know the real reason. They often, intentionally or otherwise, present strawman reasons so that they don't actually care if they get cut down.

Regarding indoctrination, I do understand that most of the time it's probably done because it's felt to be in the child's best interest. I just happen to think that it is totally not in their best interest at all. If it's true, it will still be there when they've learnt how to think. If you're worshiping something that has already started scoring black marks against children that can't think properly yet, then he's more evil than I thought.

[account_inactive]

Brainwashing and stupidity are the main ones.

[Whateverist]

In response, I cna only repeat what I said earlier. I'm amazed that anyone, who doesn't lock themselves out from our scientific knowledge, can believe in any of the scripted gods. We're talking about a gap of 4,5 billion years and give or take 3000 years after all.

Touche. You cannot fathom anyone having different experiences than you and coming to different conclusions than you, unless that person was some sort of unthinking idiot or something.

But Catholics don't believe in a young earth, do they?  Nowadays, Catholics seem to be the xtians most likely to embrace science in my experience.  Catholicism seems more concerned with what is or isn't okay to do and how one does/should feel about it.