Why is religion still a thing?

[Scarletthoo2]

As the title states, I would like to know why people still choose religion rather than science, please give me your personal view and opinions.

I was christened at birth, but grown up an atheist. I'm just curious to know why so many people still believe in religion and god. Considering there's undeniable evidence that everything on earth is simply made of atoms and particles and wasn't created by an otherworldly person.

Hopefully this doesn't cause offence to some people, like I've said, just simply want others views.

“what I mean by "embracing/accepting science" is that there is no why. It's about accepting that chemistry/biology is explanation enough,”

This is a strange definition of embracing/accepting science. Do you know where you got it from? I am a scientist, studying science and working with many different scientists all my adult life and I would not define science in this way. I’ve got friends who are scientists of all faith backgrounds and none, and I don’t see the extent to which one embraces and accepts science and the extent to which one is religious as particularly related to each other. Maybe for the odd person/odd belief basis but not generally, and it doesn’t tend to affect how they do science.

For me as a scientist my belief in God does derive from encountering Him. From what I later learned, some say this is how God works; that we can sew seeds for each other but it is God that brings people to faith not us.

From that it follows that maybe He just hasn’t got to you yet 😜

@Blaueblumen Jesus taught this about the importance of praying and never giving up hope:

The Parable of the Persistent Widow
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Luke 18:1-8.

www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/what-jesus-teaches-about-prayer-in-the-parable-of-the-persistent-widow.html

@erinaceus I wasn't saying that is the definition of science. I was saying that to me when I ponder the same question as OP, I mean why do people not feel that the explanations science give us are enough. to me, it seems a pretty open and shut case, I don't hear it and think "but why though"

From that it follows that maybe He just hasn’t got to you yet 😜

I can't really be bothered with statements like this but just know that it comes across as condescending rather than playful. I could equally say that understanding of the accident that is our universe hasn't got to you yet.

But this is what I mean by the fact science cannot ever prove God doesn’t exist. If he doesn’t want proof of his existence he can just ignore all such attempts and just not have interceded here. I realise this is annoying but you can’t measure an all seeing all powerful entity with science

If he doesn’t want proof of his existence he can just ignore all such attempts and just not have interceded here

But why would he choose to ignore all these prayers? Especially by those by those who believe in him?

Do you think he's ignoring their prayers just so he can keep his existence secret?

Not many people on this discussion (if any) have said god doesn't exist. There is no substantive evidence for his existence (so far), so he's being a bit of a pain hiding away from some many people for all this time. Basing a whole control mechanism on a book (or books) written non contemporaneously a long time ago, changing them a bit in some cases to suit individual narratives, inventing complete new narratives under the same umbrella, and then saying we can't 'know' until we 'know', to me sounds like a pretty good definition of snake oil. If you tried to invent religion now, I reckon no one would believe you.

If he doesn’t want proof of his existence he can just ignore all such attempts and just not have interceded here

Well, that's one (mental contortionist) explanation. I prefer to go with Occam's Razor and go for the simpler explanation, which is that he does not exist.

I don’t think it’s much or a contortion it’s the difference between not existing and not wanting proof of existence. Neither is simpler than the other but each is more convenient to one side or the other and neither perspective can be completely excluded

Oh I don’t know, gender ideology has come pretty close to a religion and is happily being used to indoctrinate children. As one example out of many

@aSofaNearYou Apologies. I don’t mean to be condescending. That is my fault and I don’t mean to.

Your original post though says “what I mean by "embracing/accepting science" is that there is no why.” and this is quite far from what embracing/accepting science means; there being no why is more of a sort of philosophy standpoint, or at least that’s my experience. That’s what I meant about definition.

Yes, I get that. I think you are misreading me tone. I am saying what I mean by it. Not that that's objectively what it means.

OIC. Sorry.

And moi aussi!

Like @Vincitveritas I would hope nobody tries to use the Bible - or other religious texts - as a science manual.
And of course nobody does. Apart from fundamentalist Christians of an Evangelical stripe . And New Atheists.

Max Planck , the father of quantum physics , said ' science advances one funeral at a time' . So that most scientists clung to the Steady State theory of the universe until it was no longer tenable. Then they accepted Big Bang - first proposed by Father Georges Lemaitre.

But Big Bang is problematic for Atheists as it implies a cause. Or else something from nothing. Therefore we now have the notion that nothing doesn't exist - instead there is a quantum flux . As I understand it a sort of potential state from which space time energy and matter must emerge.

Even then life - let alone intelligent life - is so wildly improbable that infinite universes or dimensions are posited to explain the existence of life on this one. For which there isn't a scintilla of evidence.

So much for the much vaunted Occam's Razor. Perhaps it was one of those awful Bic ones ?

None of this proves that God exists or that the Universe has a cause or purpose. But it certainly doesn't prove the opposite.

Maybe it is our egos that demand an explanation when the reality is that we are all no more than a temporary collection of atoms.

The Big Bang doesn't cause me any problems at all (as an atheist). There is no evidence suggesting it was some sort of supreme being that caused it, so I'm open to whatever evidence can be found. Not a fan of making some stuff up to suit though.

So you don't buy all this made up shit about a bazillion universes?

And what has led you to that conclusion about a fairly widely understood scientific theory? And what makes you think any multiverse theory excludes the possibility of god?

According to Martin Rees it dispenses with God since if there are infinite universes then one of them will be the Goldilocks universe in which the exact conditions for intelligent life to evolve are found.

And who created the universes (inc the Goldilocks one)? It’s doesn’t dispense with the possibility of God at all. He’s just working on the same premises at infinite monkeys an infinite amount of time eventually they’ll recreate Shakespeare's works. But the monkeys and typewriters need to come from somewhere

I’m mean it has turned out God does play dice😉

@Marths So god only helps people who are Christian?

Not at all! He wants everyone to know him and have eternal life. We were all distant from God at one point in our lives even if we are now believers, none of us are any more special than the others. God works to help all of us to come to that realisation, whether by life experiences, people we met, perhaps healing, many things.

I'm reminded of the parable of the lost sheep, Matthew 18:10-14:
Excerpt:
If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

If you need help, no matter what your faith or lack thereof, you should ask God.

If you need help, no matter what your faith or lack thereof, you should ask God

Tried that when I was desperate - no answer. Far too flaky for my liking.

If you need help, no matter what your faith or lack thereof, you should ask God.

And is there even the tiniest shred of evidence that God has ever helpefd a single person? I imagine that literally millions of sick and dying people have unsuccessfully prayed to god to help them. Did he answer?

Yes, if you replaced ‘God’ with ‘my boyfriend’ or ‘my best friend’ in many of these statements, the relationships board would say ‘poor communicator’, ‘not that into you’, ‘avoidant’, ‘emotional bandwidth of a sandwich’, ‘too much hard work’ etc.