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Anonymous asked: Most humans believe in a higher being. What drives this belief?

So time to go on a quick diatribe about religion.

Religion has served many purposes throughout human history, but I think the first was probably a sort of reassurance. Way back when, the world was probably a much scarier place than it is today. Our ancestors had no way of understanding the processes that caused an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. They didn’t have radar; they never had several days’ advance warning about incoming hurricanes. That said, religion provided explanations as to why events, which would otherwise seem random, occurred. If an earthquake occurred, one could simply blame it on the gods being angry; likewise, high winds could be attributed to divine flatulence, etc.

Primitive religions, like mysticism, are by nature decentralized. With the advent of larger societies, organized religion began to take hold, which is when the focus of religion shifted from reassurance to power. Large religions wield an absurd amount of power. For instance, the Catholic Church pretty much ran Europe for most of a millennium; their coffers are still packed full of money from tithes and church taxes levied by otherwise modern countries like Germany. Mecca, which is a pretty lame city in the middle of the desert, became a prime tourist spot for devout Muslims.

So let’s get back to the original question. What drives belief?

You can’t exactly pin the answer down precisely, since different people have different rationales, and these rationales have changed through history.

The first option is that, like our long-gone ancestors, people feel the need to have an explanation for things. It’s hard to stomach the idea that things can just happen spontaneously. A prime example of this is evolution. Evolution’s a pretty elegant idea, and I’m quite convinced of its legitimacy, but even then, I sometimes am awed by the sheer complexity of the living world. It’s hard to believe that it could have just evolved on its own without some sort of unseen, guiding hand. Religion conveniently provides an explanation for this kind of stuff, and for other natural phenomena.

The second option is that people just readily subscribe to bullshit they see/hear. I’m sure people can be convinced of a higher being by watching televangelists and faith healers. These people are also likely to think that “gullible” isn’t in the dictionary.

Finally - and this probably applies to the majority of religious people - we have childhood brainwashing. Once someone is raised religious by their parents (who were presumably also raised religious by their parents), it’s tough to shake religious dogma off. As a kid, I was told not to touch books with my feet, and even though I know that it makes no sense, I instinctively avoid doing it.

In short: this belief is driven by a drunk guy without a seatbelt.