Religions appeared a very long time ago, but even earlier people began to believe in various deities, in the paranormal. Belief in such things and an interest in life after death appeared when people became people: with their feelings, thoughts, social institutions and the bitterness of the loss of loved ones.
Paganism and totemism first appeared, then world religions formed, behind almost every one 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 will answer for sure.
Consider the question below why people believe in God.
What does religion give?
There are different situations in a person’s life. Someone is born in a very religious family, therefore, also becomes the same. And some experience loneliness or fall into such accidental dangerous situations, after which they survive and after that they begin to believe in God. But the examples do not end there. There are many reasons and explanations for why people believe in God.
The power of faith in God sometimes knows no boundaries and can really be beneficial. A person receives a boost 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 all the unknown
What is God for people of the past? Faith then played a key role in people's lives. There were extremely few who were atheists. Moreover, the denial of God was censured. Civilizations were not developed enough to explain physical phenomena. And that is why people believed in deities responsible for various phenomena. For example, the ancient Egyptians had the god of air Amon, who was responsible a little later for the sun; Anubis patronized the world of the dead and so on. This was not only in Egypt. It was customary to glorify 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 an immense cosmos and much more. It is worth considering that faith is in no way connected with the human mind. Many scientists, discoverers, inventors were believers.
Nevertheless, even until now no answers have been found to some key questions, such as: what awaits us after death and what happened before the formation of the Earth and space in general? There is a theory of the Big Bang, but it has not been proved whether it was actually what happened before it, what caused the explosion, and more. It is not known whether there is a soul, reincarnation, etc. Exactly as it has not been proved exactly that there is an absolute and complete death. There is a lot of controversy on this basis in the world, but this uncertainty and obscurity cannot be left anywhere, and religions provide answers to these eternal questions.
Environment, geography
As a rule, a person born in 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 in 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 will become religious at all, but there are a number of reasons why people believe in God at a more mature conscious age.
Loneliness
Faith in God often gives people some moral support from above. For single people, the need for this is slightly higher than for people who have loved ones. This is the reason that may affect the acquisition of faith, although before that a person could be an atheist.
Any religion has the property that adherents feel involved in something worldly, great, sacred. She is also able to 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: to save the soul, long life, or to cure diseases and purification, for example. In Christianity, there are fasts and prayers. With their help, you can create the hope that everything will be really good. This brings optimism in many situations.
Some cases
As mentioned above, a person can sharply believe in God. Often this happens after quite extraordinary life events. After the loss of a loved one or illness, for example.
There are cases when people suddenly think of God, when they face the danger, after which they are lucky: with a wild animal, a criminal, or an injury. Faith is the guarantee that everything will be fine.
Fear of death
People are afraid of many things. Death is what awaits everyone, but usually no one is ready for it. It happens in an unpredictable moment and makes everyone close to grieve. Someone perceives this end with optimism, while others do not, but nevertheless it is always very uncertain. Who knows what's on the other side of life? Of course, I want to hope for the best, and religions just give this hope.
In Christianity, for example, after death comes hell or paradise, in Buddhism - reincarnation, which is also not an absolute end. Belief in the soul implies immortality.
We examined some of the reasons above. Of course, do not discard that faith is causeless.
Opinion
Many psychologists and scientists assume: it does not matter if God really is, but what matters is what religion gives to every person. For example, American professor Stephen Rice conducted an interesting study, where he interviewed several thousand believers. The survey revealed what beliefs they hold, as well as character traits, self-esteem and much more. It turned out that, for example, peace-loving people prefer the good God (or try to see him like that), but those who think that they sin a lot, repent and worry about it, prefer a strict God in religion, where there is fear punishment for sins after death (Christianity).
The professor also believes that religion gives support, love, order, spirituality, glory. God as a kind of invisible friend who will support in time or, conversely, scold, if necessary for a person who lacks self-discipline and motivation in life. Of course, this all applies more to people who need to feel some kind of support under themselves. And religion can give 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 analyticism in a person, 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, it was found out that a tendency to faith in a person is determined rather by upbringing, society, environment, but does not come from birth and does not arise just like that.
Instead of a conclusion
To 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" this from their parents and their environment, to fight feelings and fear. But this is only a small part, since religion really gave a lot to humanity. Many people believed in the past, will be in the future. Many religions also mean the creation of goodness, from which one can enjoy pleasure and tranquility. The difference between an atheist and a believer is only in the presence / absence of faith, but this does not in any way reflect the personal qualities of a person. This is not an indicator of intelligence, kindness. And even more so does not reflect social status.
Unfortunately, scammers often profit from a person’s tendency to believe in something, posing as great prophets and not only. It is necessary to be careful and not to believe dubious persons and sects, which in recent years have become very numerous. If you observe rationality and relate to religion accordingly, then everything will be in order.