why do you think people believe in any god/gods...
According to statistics:
Why skeptics believe in God
1. Good design/natural/beauty/perfection/complexity of the world or universe (29.2%).
2. It is comforting, relieving, consoling, gives meaning and purpose to life (21.3%).
3. Experience in God in everyday life/God is in us (14.4%).
4. Just because there is a need to believe in something (11.4%).
5. Without God there would be no morality (6.4%).
6. The religious scriptures say so (5.5%).
7. The universe is God (4.0%).
8. Just because raised to believe in God (3.0).
9. God has plan for world, history, destiny, and us (3.0%).
10. The account for good and avenge evil in the world (.10%).
Cumulative total: 99.1 percent. Other answers included “God answers prayers.”
Why skeptics think other people believe in God
1. It is comforting, relieving, consoling, gives meaning and purpose to life (21.5%).
2. Need to believe in an afterlife/fear of death and the unknown (17.8).
3. Lack of exposure to science/lack of education/ignorance (13.5%).
4. Just because raised to believe in God (11.5%).
5. Good design of the world/natural beauty/perfection/complexity (8.8%).
6. Culture is religious (7.2%).
7. Social/need for community (5%).
8. Brainwashed (4.5%).
9. Genetics/evolution (4.1%).
10. Just because there is a need to believe in something (2.1%).
Cumulative total: 96.0 percent. Other answers included “I don’t know,” “religion is a meme virus,” “to account for good and avenge evil in the world,” and “schizophrenic/mad/nuts.”
Why skeptics do not believe in God
1. There is no proof for God’s existence (37.9%).
2. There is no need to believe in God (13.2%).
3. It is absurd to believe in God (12.1%).
4. God is unknowable (8.3%).
5. Science providence all answers we need (8.3%).
6. The problem of Evil: pain, suffering, children dying, wars, holocausts, genocide, etc. (7.0%).
7. God is a product of mind and culture (4.0%).
8. God is just another explanation for uncertainties and the unknown (3.1%).
9. God and religion are just a means of social control (2.4%).
10. Religion is bad for society, history, religious was, religious crimes, etc. (2.1%).
Cumulative total: 99.4 percent. Other answers included “God is a product of primitive beliefs transferred to us,” and “the burden of proof is on believers to prove God, not on us to disprove God.”
Shermer, Michael. How We Believe. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 2000.
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