Why don't people believe in God? Should modern man believe in God?

Why do people hate God

First, we must remember that we live in an era of apostasy from God.

Most people are atheists, atheists, although many still believe.

The lukewarmness and spirit of this world took possession of them.

Where are the reasons for this? There is no love for God and no compassion for other people.

Let us ask ourselves the question: “How did it happen that people began not only to ignore God, but to fanatically hate Him?” But the question is this.

No one can hate something that doesn't exist. Therefore, we can say that people believe in God more than ever before in the history of mankind. People know the Holy Scriptures, the Teachings of the Church and God’s universe and are sure that God exists.

Humanity does not see God and therefore hates Him. And, in fact, people perceive God as the enemy. Denying God is taking revenge on God.

Why do people become atheists or remain believers?

(Why do people become atheists?)

(Copyright by Adrian BARNETT.
Translated and reprinted
by permission of the author.)
(Copyright belongs to
Adrian BARNETT
Translated and published
with permission of the author.)

1. Reasons

People become atheists for many reasons.

As you study the Bible, you can quickly determine that it divides unbelievers into three main groups. There is also a third, separate one - heretics. But they still believe in God, albeit distorted from other points of view. These three groups are: Greeks, Jews and pagans. Regardless of their actual nationality, ancient Christian writers viewed them either as non-believers or as misguided but believing in something. But if we are talking about unbelief, then it will become discussed. Hellenes. As before thousands of years ago, so today Christianity sees in them people who are very smart, well-read, highly educated and very proud of their knowledge. They worship their vices, mainly pride. With all their might, the Hellenes try to achieve heights in intellectual work, elevating the mind to the rank of their own deity. In conversations about the divine they rely on scientific facts and personal observations.

As scientists show that faith can soothe pain, eminent psychologist Dorothy Rowe examines the arguments for and against religion.

I'm not religious, but I've thought about religion all my life. My mother never went to church, but she insisted that I attend St. Andrew's, a cold, unfriendly place filled with cold, unfriendly people. At home, my father read aloud to us passages from the stories of Robert Ingersoll, a militant 19th-century atheist.

Ingersoll's prose rivaled the musicality and majesty of the King James Version. I liked the language of both books. I learned to use Ingersoll's logic to explore the teachings of the Bible. I endlessly condemned the cruelty and vanity of the Presbyterian God, but I liked Jesus: he seemed kind and good to me. loving person like my father.

Some believe that belief in God is a matter of personal preference, others sincerely argue that without faith a person cannot be a full-fledged person, and still others prefer not to touch upon this question in view of the deep conviction that people invented faith in God for themselves, and it has no basis. These opinions are contradictory, but each of them has its own position, reflecting a person’s view of faith in the creator in principle. So, people believe in God because:

— Born into a religious family. Moreover, religion mostly depends on the area in which the family lives. This means that faith is like nationality - if a person was born, for example, in India, then he should be a Hindu, if in Russia he should be Orthodox. Usually such faith is not strong and people live and believe “like everyone else.”

- They feel the need for God. People from this category consciously show interest in religion and the creator, looking for what suits their inner feelings.

There are many reasons why many people do not believe in the existence of God. For example, the tendency to reject God for some people is rooted in a philosophy that exalts pure reason. According to Charles Darwin, the natural world is better explained " natural selection" than the existence of the Creator. True, although Darwin in his theory suggested how various forms of life developed, he did not explain how life arose and what its meaning was. Another reason for disbelief in the Creator is the presence on earth of suffering, chaos, lawlessness, famine, wars, natural disasters disasters, etc. Observing what is happening in the world, many do not understand why the Creator - if he exists - will not change life for the better. However, the Bible gives clear answers to this question. It’s just that many people, unfortunately, do not know the Bible. This book explains why God temporarily allowed suffering to exist on earth.

Many people reject the Creator because they simply do not want to believe in him.

Why do people believe in God? And why shouldn’t you believe in God? Why do people believe in God?

And why shouldn't you believe in God?

Man will never be free until he banishes God from his mind. © Denis Diderot

Today, many people simply do not think about why, despite the availability of modern knowledge, some still continue to believe in the presence of a soul, in God, in an afterlife. Indeed, in fact, there is simply NO basis for belief in the presence of a soul, in God and the afterlife, except for ancient superstitious misconceptions and ignorant speculation.

1. The emergence of the idea of ​​the soul and the idea of ​​spiritual essence.

It was very difficult for ancient man, unlike modern man, to comprehend the essence of occurring natural phenomena. Without knowing the nature of many phenomena and events, ancient man could perceive them mostly emotionally rather than rationally.

Faith is the right of every person. We live in a modern, scientifically developed society, where human body, the mind, the world around us are studied thoroughly. However, no facts that speak about the true version of the creation of the world and the absence of religious miracles in it can force a person to turn away from his faith. Next, let's look at several reasons why a person believes in God and other people.

Why does a person believe in God?

IN modern world There are many religious orientations; any person can choose the faith that is most suitable for him. You will learn about some of them from the article Who to Believe in. However, most people adhere to the faith that their parents chose for them. Why do people believe in God?

This question has been studied for many centuries. It is worth noting that each believer is unique in his own way, each person has his own reason for believing. But we will talk about the main, global reasons.

Because believers are so weak morally that they are looking for someone to blame for all their troubles, and they are also looking for someone who would do all the work for them and help them out at the right time... And a person does not necessarily have to believe in something like said earlier...
When people die, they don't go to hell or heaven, they go to the coffin! That's it, they're gone! And you hear, you will never see them, unless you dig up the coffin and you will be able to see their remains! And when you die you will be gone! There will be nothing, no light at the end of the tunnel, no God, no Devil, no Buddha, no astral plane, no reincarnation... You died, that's it, there will be nothing...
This is what frightened the weak and impressionable people charlatans at the dawn of civilization, and they, in turn, believed them and gave away all their belongings just to avoid going to hell...
And it’s good that people appeared who began to doubt the words of “good” people in robes, how would you, believers, live now without us, atheists?

Researchers from the University of Oxford will spend £1.9 million to answer the question: why do people believe in God? Scientists received a grant to study whether belief in divine power is caused by human nature or upbringing? Scientists will not answer the question of whether God really exists. Instead, they will collect evidence for each of two hypotheses: that belief in God gave humanity an advantage in evolution, and that faith arose as a byproduct of other human characteristics, such as collectivism. Researchers from the Center for Science and Religion Ian Ramsey and the Center for Anthropology and Consciousness at Oxford will use the tools of cognitive science to develop " scientific approach to the question of why we believe in God, and to other problems related to the nature and origin of religious beliefs."

- The Lord spoke this parable: Make the Kingdom of Heaven like the man king, who married your son. And he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriages, and did not want to come (Matthew 22:2-3)
From the current Gospel and the interpretation of it, we can see how God calls all people to perfection in peace and love, to the joy of life everywhere and in everything, but since we do not understand what we are talking about, we refuse God’s calling and the very God.

The reasons for our refusal may be very different, but they are all insignificant compared to what God offers us. We realize that having been born into this world, we could not survive without outside help our parents or patrons who looked after us, raised and raised us. As adults, we perceive life as we see it, according to our knowledge of life— life experience. We build our lives like this...

There are many reasons why many people do not believe in the existence of God. For example, the tendency for some people to reject God is rooted in their adherence to a philosophy that exalts pure reason. Many of these people believe evolutionary theory Charles Darwin. According to Charles Darwin, the natural world is better explained by “natural selection” than by the existence of a Creator. True, although Darwin in his theory suggested how various forms of life developed, he did not explain how life arose and what its meaning was. Darwin did not explain what the purpose of man on earth is or whether there is one at all. However, the Bible gives answers to these questions, as well as to how life appeared on earth and not only on Earth.

This question may seem equally naive, meaningless and unanswerable. Indeed, until recently, most scientists involved in the social sciences and the study of cognitive processes ignored it.

This has changed dramatically in the last decade, as renewed debate about the relationship between science and religion spilled into the cultural space and scientists from different fields became involved in the debate. A recent book from a New York publisher, Why God Won't Go Away?, takes an interesting and new look at this question, especially from a neuroscience perspective, as the subtitle tells the reader: “ Brain Science and the Biology of Belief.”

Why do people believe in God? Faith brings you closer. Faith is divisive. Because of their faith, people staged the largest Crusades, where thousands died. But faith was, is and will be an inexplicable and mysterious phenomenon. This is why people often wonder: Why does a person believe in God, while others choose atheism? Psychologists, scientists and religious leaders have their own points of view on this matter.

Scientific point of view on the question of faith

Researchers of the phenomenon of faith argue that religiosity is inherent in a person as an acquired and not an innate quality. By nature, a child greatly trusts older authoritative figures from his environment (father, mother, other relatives), and therefore, like a sponge, he absorbs and unquestioningly trusts the knowledge that is passed on by older generations, and subsequently follows the 10 commandments. We can conclude that faith has been passed on as an inheritance for many hundreds of years.

Quote: Komlev Alexey

People believe in God because they fear Him.

The fact is, only those people who believe in his existence can fear God (atheists are not afraid of non-existent Gods of any ancient mythologies). Therefore, the initial phrase will have the following meaning:
“People believe in God because they believe in his existence.” And this leads to a logical tautology, which, based on its properties, does not make sense and does not carry any useful information at all.

The question is why do people believe in its existence? – remained unanswered... I’ll try to express my opinion on this matter as briefly as possible.

But this question can be divided into two sub-questions:
— How does faith in the very existence of God arise and on what basis?
— How does the very desire to believe in the existence of God arise?

In my note “On unreal reality,” I expressed the idea that people in their lives usually believe in what they want to believe, that the lack of faith in God is a consequence of the unwillingness to believe in Him. Why do people not want to believe in God, what are the reasons for this? It seems to me that there are three main reasons that hinder religious faith. I will try to characterize them. 1. On the very surface lies a reason associated with the moral qualities of the human person. It is clear that a selfish, cruel, selfish person is very far from God and is not at all inclined to believe in Him. He has little love, i.e. God, in the soul, where does faith come from? Accordingly, he has no desire to gain faith, because it would expose his depravity and give rise to fear of punishment. After all, if there is no God, then everything is permitted.

What is “God”?

Modern science is making giant strides forward every day, explaining what were once considered miracles. We interpreted the origin of the Universe, the Earth, water, air - life. And they did not arise in seven days. Once upon a time, people explained all disasters as the wrath of God. Now we understand that an earthquake is a consequence of movement earth's crust, and a hurricane is air currents. Today, scientists are finding clues in biblical cataclysms that are not so difficult to interpret. Why didn't people look for an explanation for this many years ago?

Religion - salvation or opium for the people?

The Church has always brought fear to people. And the church is not only Christian. In every faith there is a semblance of heaven and hell. People have always been afraid of punishment. It is known that the church had enormous power over society. Just doubting the existence of the Almighty could lead to being burned at the stake. Religion was used as a means of intimidation and control of the masses. Over the years, the church has lost trust among people. Consider the Inquisition, which killed thousands of people throughout Europe. In Rus', for example, those who missed services on Sunday were publicly caned on Monday. During times Stalin's repressions priests violated the sacrament of confession by transmitting information to the KGB. The Church struggled with “heretics” - dissident people who could ask uncomfortable questions.

Even now there are many religious movements that simply zombify people, using trust and various psychological techniques. For example, “White Brotherhood”, very popular in the early 90s. How many people were left without apartments, savings and families. It seems so healthy thinking man may believe in salvation from a dubious subject. It turned out - maybe. But, unfortunately, people are not taught these stories. As before, various religious movements “brainwash” gullible citizens. And the people believe them, even if tomorrow they tell you to drink poison in the name of God. What kind of God needs these meaningless sacrifices?
In our modern times, we can safely discuss any topic. Many theologians have made arguments for the existence of God, just as many atheists have refuted them. But there is no clear evidence of the existence of God, just as there is no evidence that he does not exist. Everyone makes their own choice of what to believe and who to pray to.

What does prayer give us and why should we believe?

It has been proven that human thought is material. What we think, wish, dream and ask for can come true. Our word is magic. We ourselves sometimes don’t know how we can hurt or inspire a person. Perhaps words together with thoughts have great power. What is this: the influence of God or the unexplored capabilities of the human brain?

During true prayer, a person seems to be transported to another dimension, where time slows down. Maybe in this way we become a little closer to God?

I remember one episode from House, when the patient’s husband, an atheist, prays for his wife. When House asked why pray if you don’t believe in God, he replied: “I promised my wife that I would do everything for her recovery. If I don’t pray, it won’t be all.”

What does faith give us? Faith inspires a person and makes him confident in his abilities. But we believe that God helps us, not own strength. There are many stories about how faith saved people from cancer, drugs, alcohol... But maybe this power was already in these people? Maybe faith in God simply provoked some special hormone in a person?

There is a lot of information to think about... But for some reason we pray and believe when nothing else can be done.

Anatomy of the soul

In the 20th and 21st centuries, research continued, but the theory of the existence of the soul was only confirmed. It was even possible to film her exiting her body. It is worth taking into account the experience of people who experienced clinical death. They absolutely cannot strangers tell the same stories.

Why can't I give up my belief in God?

Well, there are more questions left than answers... Modern man is accustomed to relying on medicine, science, technical progress, but cannot give up faith, hope, love and, in fact, God.

It would seem that in suffering people should turn to God, but many, when suffering, turn to alcohol and do not remember God at all.

Indeed, a person’s appeal to God is always a mystery. People seem to live in the same social and cultural conditions, but sometimes have completely different attitudes towards faith.

To understand the essence of this problem, let us first try to find out what unbelief and atheism are.

I am young, life is strong in me,
What should I expect? Longing, longing...
"Eugene Onegin". A.S. Pushkin

In general, in my personal opinion, there are two types of atheism. The first is forced disbelief, so to speak, atheism due to a misunderstanding, when a child was simply raised that way and therefore he has no idea about the spiritual world. Such people are capable of acting in a Christian manner, although no one seems to have taught them this. At a certain moment, such a person can easily (in a sense, easily) find faith: it will be revealed in him as a treasure that was in oblivion, but was not completely lost. In this case, faith in a person has not died, but is sleeping, and it can awaken - when reflecting on the meaning of life, when contemplating nature, when paying attention to the example of the life of sincerely believing people, and in many other cases.

The second type of unbelief is ideological atheism: this is some kind of internal aggression, hostility towards the spiritual, so that a person turns away from God, like someone who has sore eyes turns away from the sun. Moreover, the atheist himself sometimes does not understand the essence of his atheism.

1) You do not believe in God, but say “thank you” (God bless) as a sign of gratitude.
2) You do not believe that Christ lived on Earth, but you calculate chronology from the Nativity of Christ.
3) You do not believe that Christ has risen, but call the seventh day of the week Sunday.
4) You do not believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but you call ugly a person who has lost this image.
5) You do not believe that demons exist, but you say that the dog is mad or that the car is rushing at breakneck speed.
6) You don't believe that Ham (son of Noah, Genesis 9:18-29) existed, but you don't like being rude.
7) You do not believe that Onan (Genesis 38:8-9) existed, but you know what onanism is.
8) You do not believe that a person has a soul, but you believe that there are mentally ill people (or mentally ill - from the Greek psycho - soul).
9) You do not believe that a scapegoat existed (Leviticus 16: 20-22), but you do not like it when they make one out of you.
10) You don’t believe that a person has a soul, but you don’t like being called a soulless person.
11) You do not believe in spiritual laws, but at the same time you are often tormented by your conscience, unless you are an unscrupulous person.
12) You think that a person is only a soulless living body, but this body (and not the soul) can hope, believe, love, dream, sympathize, hate, envy, grieve...
13) You believe only in the material world, but do not consider conscience, sympathy, envy, sadness, hatred, faith, hope, love to be material.
14) You don’t believe in God, since no one has seen God, but at the same time you believe that you can talk through mobile phone- although no one saw the radio waves.
15) You do not believe in God, but prefer natural (created by God) products, medicines, fabrics, furniture, materials over synthetic ones (created by sinful man without God’s blessing).
16) You believe that axioms do not need to be proven, but you demand proof of the existence of God.
17) You don’t believe in God’s commandments, but you don’t like working on Sunday.
18) You do not believe in God, but use the Word of God (the Bible) in your life:
He who does not work does not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
What goes around comes around (Galatians 6:7)
He who digs a hole will fall into it (Ecclesiastes 10:8)
Bury the talent in the ground (Gospel of Matthew 25:31-33)
Sleeps in the sleep of the righteous (Book of Proverbs 3:23-24)
Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword (Gospel of Matthew 26:52)
Powerful of the world this (Psalm 118:8-9)
A time to gather up stones and a time to scatter stones (Ecclesiastes 3:5)
Into fire and into water (Psalm 65:12)
The voice of one crying in the wilderness (Matthew 3:3)
Not by bread alone (Gospel of Matthew 4:4)
Not of this world (Gospel of John 18:36)
There is no prophet in his own country (Gospel of Luke 4:24)
To Caesar - the things that are Caesar's (Gospel of Luke 20:25)
Living Corpse (1 Timothy 5:6)
Through the Lips of Babes (Gospel of Matthew 21:15-16)
Manna from heaven (Second Book of Moses - Exodus 16)
Carry your cross (Matthew 10:38, Mark 8:34)
19) You do not believe in Jesus Christ, but use Christian wisdom: “he runs like the devil from incense”, “thrashes around like a catechumen”, “if it seems you need to be baptized”, “barely a soul in the body”, “newly deceased”, “inveterate”, “give up the ghost”, “as if taken down from the cross”, etc.
20) You like the harmony and beauty of this world: mountains, seas, forests, fields, rivers, stars, animals, birds, people - but you think that all this appeared by itself.
21) You do not believe in God, but you believe in science, despite the fact that science (probability theory) shows that the probability that this world was created by an intelligent being is trillions of times higher than the probability that this world and everything in it appeared by itself. 22) You consider yourself smarter than believers, but at the same time you believe that your brain appeared by itself.

And finally, the atheist believes that it is stupid to believe in God! That you need to look realistically at life and at the things that happen. Why bother yourself with something that no one has seen and about which no one knows anything! ? How can one promise “hereafter realities” at the same time? real life, where you can really achieve something, or just have fun! ?

It is atheists who believe that they live only here and now and have nothing against eternal life. Think that eternal life cannot be achieved through symbolic actions or real earthly ones, oriented towards a symbolic, fairy-tale perception of reality.
Verbs; “Examine the blood of the communion believer. The alcohol should decrease (disappear?) and blood elements (red blood cells) from another person should be added. Are you ready for such a test?”
This is a symbolic action. Symbols have an effect on the psyche, but very little on the surrounding world.
Most atheists believe that universal human principles of behavior must be observed. A person’s morality does not depend on whether God likes an action or not. What if you were given a bad God and told you to do vile things? ! Would you really have listened to him and done such things then?

And let someone say that the atheist is wrong!

Blessed Augustine once said: “You, God, created us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You” (Confessions 1: 1). And in general, a person’s search for happiness, joy and fullness of life is actually a thirst for God. No matter what a person achieves, if he is without God, everything will not be enough for him and he will not be calm. And if he is with God, then he is content with little. It is faith in God that gives the soul that long-awaited peace that the human heart seeks.

The Holy Fathers say that the human soul is like a sunflower, which always turns its flower to the sun - and the heart also strives for God, yearns and withers without spiritual light. In fact, there are no people who have never experienced an inner craving for the spiritual, whose soul has never hurt, so that they do not need God. It's just that we see many people only at a certain stage of their life path and due to our limitations, we believe that they will never feel the thirst for the spiritual and will not change for the better.

And yet, Faith is closely connected with our freedom, with what we really want, and if our free will is directed towards good, then we will definitely come to an awareness of the reality of good, we will come to faith in God.

Perhaps the question is up in the air...

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01.09.2016

Why do people believe in God? - a question that does not have a specific answer. One thing is clear: if the question is asked, it means that the solution has not been found. Or rather, this is a task that does not require a unique solution.

As long as there are questions about the meaning of life and the meaning of death, it is too early to abandon God (or the idea of ​​him). People need some kind of ready-made answer to damned questions. Arthur Schopenhauer- the founder of irrationalism said that religion is a philosophy for beggars. Nietzsche’s teacher was not particularly tolerant, but if you look at what is happening in the world now, you can’t help but think: faith in God is not so bad. In any case, it’s better than, for example, believing in horoscopes. However, the foreplay dragged on. Let's get to the main point: why do people believe in God? We offer three options to choose from.

The world is absurd without God

If we become firmly convinced that there is no God, then we will become somehow sad. God, the source of the highest meaning, cannot be in the world; he must be separated from vanity and milk squabbles. The divine presence fills existence with meaning, independent of human troubles. An important addition: it would be possible to develop an atheistic metaphysics, but this is not the time or place. The task is different.

hope for the best

Man is weak, God is strong. The founder of Gestalt therapy, Fritz Perls, said that God is a projection of human powerlessness before the world. Let's imagine that there is no other life and that there is no other, divine reality, and how would you order a person to live after that? It’s good if life satisfies a person: he has a decent job, a family, but what if he doesn’t. If he is sick. For example, some kind of disease that greatly interferes with life, but does not kill. Thus, this life is complete suffering, and there is no other life. Not everyone can stand such a verdict.

Justification of evil is the central problem of any religion. People say: if there is a God, then why is there so much evil in the world? Thus, evil opposes the existence of God. But in fact, the physical world is full of imperfections. The task of the idea of ​​God is not to eradicate evil, but to endow it with a moral dimension. The world with God and the world without Him are different realities. Where there are no absolutes, there are no hopes. On the contrary, when we understand that earthly life precedes another, then evil can be overcome and despair recedes.

God as a cultural code

The diversity of cultures gives rise to diversity of gods. And not everyone has yet tasted the goodness of monotheism; in some corners of the world there are also pagans. The main thing is not the number of supreme beings ruling the world, but their function, and the function, regardless of the number, is to give people hope. As long as human existence is fragile and uncertain, as long as “damned questions” exist, there will be God. God as a cultural construct is eternal because death is insurmountable and it is impossible to come to terms with it. A person needs an authoritative assistant in this difficult task, while even omnipotent science cannot replace God. But progress cannot be stopped, we’ll see what happens in the future.

In the meantime, many people continue to believe in God. And some of them cannot even imagine their life without this faith. To believe or not to believe in God is, of course, a personal matter for everyone. But, you must agree that the presence of faith (and not necessarily in God) in a person’s life makes his existence more holistic and meaningful.

Religions appeared a long time ago, but even earlier people began to believe in various deities and the paranormal. Belief in such things and interest in life after death appeared when people became people: with their own feelings, thoughts, social institutions and grief over the loss of loved ones.

Paganism and totemism appeared first, then world religions were formed, behind almost each of which there is a great creator - God in different understandings and ideas depending on faith. Moreover, each person imagines it differently. What is God? No one can answer this for sure.

Let's look at the question of why people believe in God below in the article.

What does religion give?

In a person's life there are different situations. Someone is born into a very religious family, so they also become the same. And some experience loneliness or find themselves in such random dangerous situations, after which they survive and after that they begin to believe in God. But the examples don't end there. There are many reasons and explanations for why people believe in God.

The power of faith in God sometimes knows no bounds and can really be beneficial. A person receives a charge of optimism and hope when he believes, prays, etc., which has a beneficial effect on the psyche, mood and body.

Explanation of the laws of nature and everything unknown

What is God for people of the past? Faith then played a key role in people's lives. There were very few who were atheists. Moreover, the denial of God was condemned. Civilizations were not advanced enough to explain physical phenomena. And that is why people believed in deities responsible for various phenomena. For example, the ancient Egyptians had Amon, who was responsible a little later for the sun; Anubis patronized the world of the dead and so on. This was not only the case in Egypt. It was customary to praise the gods in Ancient Greece, Rome, even before civilizations as such, people believed in deities.

Of course, over time, discoveries occurred. They discovered that the earth is round, that there is vast space, and much more. It is worth considering that faith has nothing to do with a person’s mind. Many scientists, discoverers, and inventors were believers.

Nevertheless, even now, answers to some main questions have not been found, such as: what happened before the formation of the Earth and space as a whole? There is a theory of the Big Bang, but it has not been proven whether it actually happened, what happened before it, what caused the explosion, and more. It is unknown whether there is a soul, reincarnation, etc. Just like it has not been proven for sure that there is absolute and complete death. There are a lot of disputes on this basis in the world, but this uncertainty and unknown cannot be avoided, and religions provide answers to these eternal questions.

Environment, geography

As a rule, a person born into a religious family also becomes a believer. And the geographical place of birth influences what faith he will adhere to. For example, Islam is widespread in the Middle East (Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, etc.) and in northern Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Libya). But Christianity with all its branches is widespread throughout almost all of Europe, North America(Catholicism and Protestantism) and in Russia (Orthodoxy). That is why in a purely Muslim country, for example, almost all of the believers are Muslims.

Geography and family usually influence whether a person becomes religious at all, but there are a number of other reasons why people believe in God later in life.

Loneliness

Faith in God often gives people some kind of moral support from above. Lonely people have a slightly higher need for this than people who have loved ones. This is the reason that can influence the acquisition of faith, although before that a person could be an atheist.

Any religion has such a property that its adherents feel involved in something global, great, sacred. It can also give confidence in the future. It is worth noting that confident people are less dependent on the need to believe than insecure people.

Hope

People can hope for different things: for the salvation of the soul, long life or for healing from diseases and cleansing, for example. In Christianity there are fasts and prayers. With their help, you can create hope that everything will be really good. This brings optimism in many situations.

Some cases

As mentioned above, a person can suddenly believe in God. This often happens after completely extraordinary life events. After the loss loved one or illness, for example.

There are cases when people suddenly think about God when they come face to face with danger, after which they were lucky: with a wild animal, with a criminal, with an injury. Faith as a guarantee that everything will be fine.

Fear of death

People are afraid of many things. Death is something that awaits everyone, but usually no one is prepared for it. It happens at an unexpected moment and makes all loved ones grieve. Some people perceive this ending with optimism, while others do not, but nevertheless it is always very uncertain. Who knows what is there on the other side of life? Of course, we want to hope for the best, and religions provide this hope.

In Christianity, for example, after death comes hell or heaven, in Buddhism - reincarnation, which is also not an absolute end. Belief in the soul also implies immortality.

We have discussed some of the reasons above. Of course, one should not discount the fact that faith can be groundless.

Outside opinion

Many psychologists and scientists suggest that it does not matter whether God really exists, but what matters is what religion gives to each person. For example, American professor Stephen Rice conducted an interesting study where he interviewed several thousand believers. The survey revealed what beliefs they adhere to, as well as character traits, self-esteem and much more. It turned out that, for example, peace-loving people prefer a good God (or try to see him that way), but those who think that they sin a lot, repent and worry about this, prefer a strict God in a religion where there is fear punishments for sins after death (Christianity).

The professor also believes that religion provides support, love, order, spirituality, and glory. God is like some kind of invisible friend who will support in time or, on the contrary, scold, if this is necessary for a person who lacks concentration and motivation in life. Of course, this all applies more to people who need to feel some kind of support under them. And religion can provide this, as well as the satisfaction of human basic feelings and needs.

But scientists from Oxford and Coventry University tried to identify the connection between religiosity and analytical/intuitive thinking. It would seem that the more analyticalism a person has, the higher the likelihood that he is an atheist. However, the results showed that there is no connection between the type of thinking and religiosity. Thus, we found out that the inclination to believe in a person is determined rather by upbringing, society, environment, but is not given from birth and does not arise just like that.

Instead of a conclusion

Let's summarize why people believe in God. There are many reasons: to find answers to questions that cannot be answered in any way, because they “pick up” it from parents and the environment, to combat feelings and fear. But this is only a small part, since religion really gave a lot to humanity. Many people believed in the past and will in the future. Many religions also mean doing good, from which you can get pleasure and peace. The only difference between an atheist and a believer is the presence/absence of faith, but this in no way reflects a person’s personal qualities. This is not an indicator of intelligence or kindness. And it certainly doesn’t reflect social status.

Unfortunately, scammers often profit from a person’s inclination to believe in something, posing as great prophets and more. You need to be careful and not trust dubious individuals and sects, of which there are a lot lately. If you remain reasonable and treat religion accordingly, then everything will be fine.