Question for fellow atheists

because who wouldn't want eternal life. it's the ultimate pea under the never-ending shuffling walnut shells.



and once you buy into the initial fantasy, it's easy to swallow the whole bottle of pills. i was addicted to christianity for nearly a quarter of a century.

Me, too... then I got clean, and switched to alcohol - it's observable, quantifiable, testable, repeatable - yay, science!

i'm currently experimenting with pint bottles of Stone IPA.   :-)

Childhood indoctrination. There's a reason people rarely change their religion after their late teens/early 20s or so even though their politics and moral perceptions often change.

I voted fear and habit. If we could choose three I would have also voted true belief. I think that most religious try to break that concept of habit once they realize it and not just believe/do things just because they were taught to, but a lot of the times their beliefs always come back to what they're most familiar with. It's easier to hold on to something that you're most familiar with especially if it's associated with mostly positive memories and experiences. I also think a lot of people depend on some form of guidance, inspiration and purpose in their lives and the Bible offers that to a lot of people. The Bible can even do that for non-religious people.

But I think fear is the strongest influence to why people are religious. I feel it's not really about a positive award that motivates people but the fear of what the consequences will be if they aren't positively awarded. The idea that anyone can go to hell is scary and naturally you would think that heaven is the better deal, but the only reason you want to go to heaven is to avoid places like hell. It's the fear of hell that actually makes you want to go to heaven and not because you would have chosen heaven without being given that ultimatum. Just imagine a teacher giving the class a homework assignment for the benefit of learning something important and then telling them that it won't affect their grade if they didn't do it. Almost no one in that class would do that assignment because there are no consequences from not doing it. But once the teacher were to say that the assignment will be a huge impact on their grade and decide whether they pass or not then almost everyone in the class is going to do it. The only reason why you want to pass is because you won't fail, and not just for the sake of passing something. I think naturally we as humans are more driven by fear than just positive award alone and I think the concept of heaven and hell and religion is similar. I think most people can't let go of religion even once they've come to the state of uncertainty about it because they're afraid of what could happen to them if they did.

It's all about the childhood indoctrination. That's why people growing up in heavily Muslim areas "happen" to become Muslims too. And people who grow up in heavily Christian areas "happen" to become Christians. And so on.

The question seems to assume that people are given an unconstrained choice to decide what to believe.
This is probably not true for a very large percentage of people.

Reasons vary depending on the individual.
Also, there may be more than two reasons why someone follows a religion.
And a reason like "gives comfort / makes the believer feel good" is missing.

All in all: Not a great poll in my opinion.

Habit
Lately not so much a habit, is it?

Peer pressure
Lately not so much peer pressure, is there?

Pascal's wager
An excellent reason, as ever.

Fear
An excellent reason in the past, not so much lately.

True belief
It is rather difficult to argue against the truth once you find it.

Greed/Power
That would be the reason people exploit religion, not the reason they are religious.  Religion can't force you to do anything.

Ignorance and arrogance (according to goz )
Some people do exploit or "use" religion for that. How's that working out lately?

It is a "something," atheism is not. (according to Arlon10 )
What else are you going to do on weekends? Football?


Habit
In the days before modern science it was easy to assume that "animalcules" could have "randomly" assembled. Many moderately intelligent people were fooled. You have to be an idiot to still believe that.

Peer pressure
Obviously the government has reversed the peer pressure. The popularity of atheism now has the force of government to add pressure.

Pascal's Wager
Not really a good reason to become an atheist, even with all the peer pressure.

Fear
Yes, atheists do fear the unknown as much or more than anyone fears any god.

True belief
Atheism is a belief, but a not a systematic belief. It has no tenets.

Greed/Power
The religious cannot force you to give them anything. Government can.

Ignorance and arrogance
That describes quite many atheists.

It is a "something," atheism is not.
Not a big reason to be an atheist obviously, but some people are introverted and might use atheism to avoid public events.