To wonder how anyone can believe in a religion?

[Staringintothevoid616]

I can understand why some believe in a higher power, in many ways it’s logical and many might just feel there is one, some people might refute that, all fine and dandy.

But what on earth makes people follow a religion? There’s literally hundreds of them over the course of history, even a rudimentary bit of research/critical thinking highlights the fact they can only be man made, the rules designed to fulfil a particular mundane purpose.

What makes people pick one (beyond being born in a certain place to a certain family) over all others and go “ yep this is the one truth, these rules come from a specific god/gods/goddesses, these rules other religions are just made up”.

I mean for many it’s not just a hobby, they’re willing to shape their lives to whatever set of rules they pick, sometimes to kill and be killed. Why??? Even a second of thought must highlight their folly?

it’s not about whether a higher power exists, it’s about why people have to frame that belief on a set of clearly made up rules, which range from the bizarre (don’t eat meat on a Friday) to the downright dangerous )it’s justified to kill anyone who doesn’t believe the same set of made up rules as you do)

AIBU to wonder why people follow religions?

Usually the religion they were brought up in. My mother was brought up Catholic, as was I. My sister is the only one that still practices though, but if pushed I’d say in Catholic too.

I have worked with lots of Christians. One of them was the nicest person I have ever met in my life. I just couldn't understand why she believed in god. I just can't respect people who believe in God.. it is like believing in the tooth fairy ... just bizarre!

I think one of the main reasons is because people fear what happens to them when they die. They also feel the need to have an internal drive to behave in a certain way.

Not just for money, not just because everyone else is doing it. But a kind of raison d'etre.

Rather than just blindly going through life doing things, you can say, I'm doing this because my religion says do and it will make me a better person. Or make me go to a better place when my life ends.

I guess everyone has a desire to fit in, but also to feel safe and superior. And that the way you live your life is the right way. And religion offers that feeling.

I'm just guessing as I'm not religious and doubt I ever will be.

Well, look at it this way. How do you know that you can even know anything, for there to be science? How do you know that the world operates on a rational basis? What is the nature of being, or physical reality? What is the basis of morality? Could we just pop in and out of existence, or could we be living in a dream, or giant video game? What is science anyway? Are mathematics real?

None of these are questions that science can give an answer to, and for some of them, the existence of science itself really depends on the answer. If we don't have a stable basis for real knowledge, or observation, what's the point of science?

Religion has very little, almost nothing, to do with telling us how the physical world came to be the way it is, or how it works. It mainly talks about why anything exists at all, what it means that it exists, what it means that we as conscious beings exists, and what we should do about it.

Acts was recorded by the early Christians themselves. As was all of the New Testament documents.

I read that book too, and it definitely spoke to me. I was in a very agnostic phase at the time and it helped me think differently about my religious leanings!

I see religion as a framework I hang my spiritual stuff on - knowing I was never going to believe every article of any religion, I decided that rather than seeking a religion that ‘worked for me’ I’d stick more or less with the one I was born in, namely the C of E 😁, although I am drawn to Catholicism (quite possibly because I wasn’t brought up in it). I don’t think Christianity is ‘better’ or more ‘true’ than other religions, it’s just the one I know best and am culturally aligned with and attuned to. I don’t go to church much, and don’t have a community around it, but I do feel vaguely connected to others who’ve prayed and worshipped using the same words and who’ve read or heard the same texts.

I don’t believe in life after death and I think of the Resurrection and Christ’s appearances afterwards as a mystery I don’t need to believe or understand.

I don’t care if atheists think I’m stupid!

And who is usually credited with writing Acts, and who was he? What agenda did he have?

It's worth remembering that almost everyone has areas even within their own belief system that they don't really understand.

I'm a modern person with a strong interest in the natural sciences, but stopped studying mathematics when I went to university and I certainly don't understand the kinds of mathematics required to understand modern physics. I can't even follow it if it's written out, it's mostly gibberish to me.

I am quite content to leave that to other people, and while I don't believe every hair-brained idea that a theoretical physicists comes up with playing with numbers, I also don't have much basis to argue with them about it. I'd just look silly.

Every area of knowledge is like that and at the very top there are usually only a small number of people who understand the concepts.

So everyone in practice has areas where they just accept that they are not going to understand at a deep level.

I’m sorry but I wouldn’t take the writings in Acts and the other Pauline leaning texts as anything other than the position Paul wished to pursue. Pauline Christianity is entirely separate from the teachings of Jesus. Jesus and Paul’s spiritual (and mundane) background and purpose were very different. The two shouldn’t be confused

But this isn’t a deep esoteric idea, it’s a fundamental foundation on thick Christianity is based.

Why don't you say where you are going with this line of questioning?

How the New Testament writings came to exist, and more importantly, how they came to be accepted as such, is a part of that history I suggested you need to read if you want to understand these kinds of theological questions. You can't understand how these were interpreted without understanding why they were chosen (or sometimes, not chosen), by whom, and what is the nature of the authority that they saw the texts having, and the people doing the choosing as having.

The system of councils to decide questions like this were the basis of decision making in the early church, and is much more important than the individual question of who wrote Acts or any other part of the Bible, because they are essentially communal documents.

What isn't a deep esoteric idea?

I'd say there's a difference between believing in a religion and following it. As people have said, religions are diverse. I think people tend to, understandably, view all religion through a Christian lens and that's a religion that is perhaps very strongly associated with 'faith'.

You can follow a religion without believing in it, or at least some religions. I'm Jewish I attend synagogue fairly regularly, contribute to leading parts of the service and keep a kosher(ish) house but I don't believe in God, or that God gave Moses the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai etc. And that's not all that unusual in our synagogue, I'd say.

I follow Judaism because it's the cultural and spiritual tradition into which I was born, I enjoy the sense of community and continuing an ancient tradition and I find a services a meditative and spiritual experience.

Do I? This is a false distinction as far as I'm concerned. You've quoted Matthew above but Matthew wasn't written until after 50 years after Jesus' death most likely- a similar sort of period to Acts. Matthew isn't a verbatim record of what Jesus said or any sort of eye witness account- it's a book with an agenda (as all the books of the NT are) written by someone who had likely never met Jesus or Matthew. So I'm not sure why you would place any more weight on a purported quote in Matthew than on anything else, or why you're happy to rely on some books of the Bible and not others.

(FAOD I'm not arguing that any of it is true in a historical sense. But it's illogical to suggest that some bits are reliable because they begin with the words "Jesus said..." and others are not because they don't, or that some books have an agenda and others don't. They all do.)

I think there’s quite some confusion here. Matthew was likely based on Mark and numerous oral histories of Jesus’s life. Paul’s work and that of his followers was about his personal revelations and interpretations

But Acts is simply a presentation of one Msns interpretation of an event. We understand that man is likely a follower of Paul whose stated purpose was to expand the teachings of Jesus to non Jews on an equal footing to Jews. This is no part of Jesus’s teachings at all

Thank you, really interesting post by the way. 😃

I’m not religious but I have moved to a small village with a wonderful community church. So many people are involved in the church here. They don’t seem indoctrinated more it gives them a sense of belonging and community. They also do a lot of good too. I think most people around here believe in a higher power, don’t believe every word the bible says and just want to feel part of something bigger than themselves.

Religious fundamentalists are what you are talking about and they are more rare (albeit, noisy)

I’m really talking about people who believe in their religion rather than just culturally identify as something/use it as a convenient meeting point. I wouldn’t class that as fundamentalist

Arrogance. We are all conditioned to believe that we are the chosen ones of a greater power and are superior to all other beings. We are no more than ants, just less instinctively controlled.

I read the old testament. Then I read the new. I dipped into others here and there. I read the prose edda and absolutely would go Norse if I had to chose some nonsense to follow but...nah.

Family, culture, faith, community, friendship, belonging, tribe, companionship, support. and in other cases indoctrination, fear, coercion.

I don’t follow a religion or believe but I understand why many do 👆

Luke wrote Acts - it's really just a continuation of his gospel.

I am a Christian, I can't say it's because I am afraid of death, I became a Christian too young for that to feature. I simply feel drawn to God and to Jesus. Hard to explain if you haven't experienced it, I guess. My faith and religion does give meaning to my life, that would be the main reason.

Norse mythology is ace. We can learn a lot from the concept of Ragnarok

This.
Being a Christian is following the teaching of Christ. He hated the hypocrisy in the organised religion of His day. He called the Pharisees 'vipers' for blindly following rules that did not show love and care to people. He deliberately flouted pointless rules to be able to teach the truth. He spent time with lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors and others that society generally hated. When he hung out with religious people, he challenged their views and practices and told parables to make them think properly about issues. When he chose his disciples, he picked a mixture of people from all walks of life. He elevated the place of women in society, even entrusting the message of his resurrection to a woman. He was revolutionary and calls us to be also.
I grew up in a Christian family but was also encouraged to think for myself. I married a man whose family were atheist but when he got to University and started to think more for himself, became convinced that there was evidence for the existence of Jesus( to be fair,very few historians dispute this) and that he was God, and so he was baptised( in the North Sea) and has a strong faith to this day.

So yes I go to Church (probably once a month). Do I believe in an omnipresent god that sits on a cloud
and made the world in seven days then no.

As previous posters have said most people don't believe every word of their religion whether that be turning water into wine or that their god makes it impossible to mix salt water with fresh water.

But the key point is that Christianity is about loving and caring for people in your local community and basically here's a handy set of rules to becoming a decent person. And most importantly it provides hope and respect to those facing hardship or difficult times.

Now I recognise that there are decent people who aren't religious and who help the local community but it's just that the Church provides an established well known structure for providing this.

Sure there are people that dismiss religion as controlling or nonsense etc. But this ignores all the good stuff that Church provides.