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.

Our Vicar has phd in chemistry. 3 members of our congregation worked on the COVID vaccines another on AIDS research. I don’t think scientists need to have a problem with religion. Not that many take a Dawkins perspective.

Science does answer how and why things happen but we need purpose.

Religion gives purpose and hope.

Easier to function with hope than without.

I think the attempts to rationally 'explain' faith are both fair and at the same time completely missing the point of the actual experience. I don't think of myself as 'choosing' faith anymore than I 'choose' to love my husband. Could you point to rational explanations and structural factors for both? Of course. My first and most intense encounter with God was at one of the lowest points of my life; it would be trivially easy to come up with an account of what was 'really' going on psychologically. It's clearly not a coincidence that of the 7 billion people in the world I fell in love with one of the relatively small number with a similar educational and professional profile in a small geographic area. Could you 'explain' why I believe, and why I love my husband? Sure you could. Would that capture what it actually feels like to me? Not even slightly.

Hi 👋Op

I think you can believe in both,

I know it's sounds contrary as fxck

I believe in Spirit , for some time,
Last year experienced a close family bereavement,
Witnessing losing someone I was once extremely close to dying in front of my eyes,
Convinced me there is more to life , out there,

Such as even through he was extremely frail,

Obviously he was dying,

The votes of energy emitting from him, seemed so powerful ,
It was like a vortex of energy force overwhelmed him,
That was so much more powerful than his extremely frail seriously severely damaged body could ever be,

You would think someone who was like that, energy levels would be extremely low,

But it was a weird Mixture death throes of slow and extremely powerful breathing like a Express train completing its final destiny

My personal understanding around good people being taken before their time and 'bad' people going on to live long lives is that judgment happens in the next life, not this one. I have a large family and we have had our share of tragedy and it has brought a great comfort to us to know, unshakeably, through our faith, that the departed are reunited in the next life.

I’m ok with the god stuff but the religious dogma, misogyny and homophobia is not something I can swallow. I felt so guilty in my teens when I was a Christian and actually a very nice person. That side is a load of shit and unfortunately still looms large over all religions.

He was my children's father,
My ex partner,

I witnessed dying

Also facially the extremely freaky weird Massive physical changes in death throes , that happens

Remisant of Pompei Ancient city in which for time eternity their bodies and facial contours expressions are captured.

Also the distorted ways the death throes faces changes into such a physically extreme ways, in quick succession,
Was extreme

Whilst it leaves the mortal body coils ...

It’s not a binary choice.

religion is a bedrock of a moral compass for society, for better or worse, whilst science is about a deeper understanding of the worlds around us, again for better or worse.

it’s also a spectrum, im both, but i pick my depth and limits. For instance, I’d just be as much against a particular type of scientific discovery which has no purpose but to destroy people, as much as I am against some of the organisations who are custodians of religion.

I actually find that if you remove that which has agenda, there’s actually a lot in common between the two fields.

I also think science and spirituality can complement each other

Not be like oil and water combination

If someone can think in a critical way in the bigger picture kind of way

Religion is man made
Spirit is real
It's not he or she

It's Genderless

It just a powerful energy force that exists, that's part of life force energy ever lasting cycle...

Science is ever changing landscapes of Authenticity

I guess I am quirky orginal way in my way of thinking

I see idea life in 50 greys of shade , aswell as straight forward this and that...

For e.g The sun is to me 50 shades of Grey
to me,
I think in life , we have somewhat losing in society ability to think critically the bigger picture,
Hence Cancel culture in our universities and society

For e.g The sun 🌞 is obviously beneficial good for us
Life itself simply could not exist whithout it,
That's science fact
We get vitamin D which is obviously beneficial for us,
But far too much excess of vitamin D, can create Adverse problems healthwise for us,

Also far too much excess of sun light can give us Skin Cancer

This is what I call 50 shades of Grey thinking @Scarletthoo2

Not that Book,
L.o l 😄

Cancel culture depends on things in life being reduced to simplistic forms or ideas,

Life is not all simplictistic or fair
That's a fact

It's 50 shades of Grey it can be sometimes or more often
Just like people are not allways good or bad,

They can be a confusing mix of 50 shades of Grey

Curiosity@CuriouslyDifferent

I find your comments intriguing

I agree with what your saying
Very interesting Sageful insightful comments

The last comment about your thoughts on organisations and established religions

This is to do essentially with human ego

Religious ego and Religious hierarchy system

Hence the Dysfunctional toxic inherent nature of this,

Also there is some good with religions too

I agree with pp that it is a buffer against the fear of death and does give beneficial ‘purpose’ or ‘meaning’ to life for some. I was a religious child and now atheist and I have to say I sometimes miss the sense of belonging and the ritual which provided me with reassurance.

In tough times I sometimes think I wish I could still pray. But I just can’t bring myself believe in an higher power, any more than I believe in magic or superstition. I would like it to be true and I completely understand why others do have faith, whilst I could not maintain mine.

Goodread I am so sorry for your loss.

That's fair enough. It's not something I can believe as there's no evidence but I can see how it helps rationalise god letting/making? cruel things happen.

Take the human mind much of which is operating in an unconscious level. We think we know all about ourselves - everything there is to know. Actually we know only a small part of the whole spectrum of our feelings and thoughts.

What we know about is the tip of a deeper iceberg. What is perception? Perception is a creation of the mind. What you see in the world is not an absolute fixed reality but what your perception creates for you to see.

The scientific method is brilliant - it has allowed us to observe understand and find out. But there are limits to it, too. What happens where something is beyond our perception? And our perception, which we use to apply the scientific method, is not a "control experiment" but is a subjective one.

I'm a Christian - struggle to believe in the supernatural elements of it but can see where those arose from in earlier societies.

I do think the teachings of Christianity are deeply true - they deal with the problems of self flagellation, poor self worth, destructiveness, envy, aggression, jealousy, hatred, and show how these are present for us all and we have to try and turn from them to embrace gratitude, love, acceptance of oneself and others with compassion, and making what can of life as creatively as we can.

@SilverPeacock

Ah Thank you so much for your kind words...

I'd be very wary of saying the Bible was 'just a book written by a bunch of long dead people' unless you'd actually studied it. 😘

All of the books were written at different times by different authors and yet, very, very weirdly the whole thing fits together perfectly. Once you start to dig into it (I'm a theology grad), there's an incredible complexity to it but it's also a really simple unified story of how God loves people.

As for God being vindictive for not dealing with life's inexplicable horrors, there's lots of good, thoughtful responses to that huge question but I believe that discussion is always better had in person and preferably with people who are genuinely open/curious.

I too know several doctors/scientists with a really strong faith. It's not an 'either/or' situation but discovering that one complements the other.

I’ve been researching this lately
if there is something bigger than us that created everything why would it be so interested in over 100 billion self aware creatures that in comparison to a creator is just a tiny ant. The dinosaurs were on earth for over 100 million years it’s taken millions of years for humans to evolve - we have shared ancestors with chimps. If the creator considered religion important, wouldn’t they want more life to be aware
I personally believe that we are just a very small fragment of what exists - it’s quite egotistical to believe some thing watches over us. Although comforting.

I don't find any conflict at all between belief in God and scientific truth. In fact I feel that God reveals the truth of his creation to us as we know more via science and evidence. I could never undrestand the problem some Christians had and still have (mainly fundamentalists who believe in a literal interpretation of the bible), with evolution when it was discovered. That should have been a wake-up call to believers to read the bible differently and actually listen to God's voice, instead of imposing their version of his truth - this still happens today in the more fundamentalist and bible-literal churches, but is not necessary if we open our hearts and minds to God and listen to what he tells us about himself.

For me, it seems there is a certain type of person that feels these questions are unanswered and that there must be a deeper explanation to them, when really the logical answer is that there isn't.

What is the meaning of life - nothing, there isn't a deeper meaning for anything in nature, there's just a reason, and those reasons are various chemical reactions. I accept that it's possible for there to be a deeper meaning behind those reactions, but I don't think it's logical to think there must be, and think it takes a certain type of mind to assume there must be.

Why are we here - again, why would there be a why? Do we think that way about slugs? Why are they here? We are here because stars exploded a long time ago, creating elements that smashed up against each other until they eventually made creatures. There isn't a hole in that explanation that drives me to look for a reason why.

What happens when we die - nothing. We live our entire life in our bodies, why would we leave them when we die? There's no reason at all to think this, just wishful thinking.

A PP said that we "must have purpose". Well, maybe emotionally, but practically and logically, we don't. I just can't see that we are lacking evidence enough of the accidents of nature, to make a higher purpose a necessary or likely explanation.

Where exactly was Jesus Christ born?

@threewhitelines Can you give one quick explanation of the vindictiveness? Otherwise your answer is a bit of a cop out.

On a similar note to bad things happening, as a PP said, if God wants to be worshipped /obeyed, why not make himself much more obvious? Wouldn't take long now we'd be able to get better evidence of it, assuming he couldn't be arsed to keep it up. Just to refresh the ancient documents.

@Cinpple I can't see/interpret the world the way you see it, so am unable to explain what I can't see. That's why I addressed the concrete point about the Bible, rather than the vindictive arse bit.

I've found huge strength and comfort through hard times. I've never seen tragedy as inflicted by an omnipotent god, so never needed to explain why he'd do that.

I'd say more that life is challenging and we find our way through it either with or without God.

Science is a religion too, well parts of it anyway, the parts that describe the unknowable using imaginary numbers.

I think you do need to bear in mind that 'religion' means different things to different people.

I'm Jewish. I attend synagogue fairly often, I keep various Jewish customs at home (albeit not all of them). I do not believe in God, nor, I imagine, do most attendees of our synagogue which has a very large membership, and certainly no one there believes the Old Testament is literal and trumps science. Not saying we're representative or all or even most Jews, but I'm always keen to point out that religion can be part of people's lives in a way that may not be what you expect. People do tend to view all religions through the lens of Christianity where 'faith' is kind of a must.

But for me, as for many other Jews, our Judaism is a cultural and spiritual tradition that has meaning for us. Both in gathering for a spiritual ceremony, even if we don't believe in 'God' and in having a community, especially in an alienating place like London.

Whatever makes you feel better.

Fair enough. I think we have very different ways of approaching the world/religion and that's OK 🙂. I can't see myself ever becoming religious as it just doesn't seem logical to me but I'm happy for those who it does (I'd probably be happier if I did believe tbh, it must be a comfort at times!)