Why are there religious people?

[GrimKingGrim]

Christianity had it's beginnings at the dawn of human (written) history, and is still hanging around.

No, it did not.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Written history began around 3500BC if I remember correctly... so you're only off by a few millennia.

You may be referring to the writing of history, not the history itself. History is usually a record or account of past events. The past event I'm speaking of occurred in the Garden of Eden, as recorded in bible history.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

You mean as a newer variation of ancient mythology ?

As an antitype of Christ's sacrifice.

 

[TillICollapse]

As an antitype of Christ's sacrifice.

What do you mean by "antitype" ? Are you speaking of the prophetic nature of the Genesis account and the fall, etc ?

What I was referencing, was the borrowed mythology idea ... from earlier Babylonian creation accounts, so on and so forth.

 

[Eyes wide Open]

There are religious people mostly due to cultural, parental and peer pressure, they are conditioned by their environment. Some get into it from genuine experiences (let's say mystical/transpersonal) in their lives and usually jump into the faith that best fits their worldview at that time, or from the influences above with regards conditioning.

 

[Tree of Life]

There are religious people mostly due to cultural, parental and peer pressure, they are conditioned by their environment. Some get into it from genuine experiences (let's say mystical/transpersonal) in their lives and usually jump into the faith that best fits their worldview at that time, or from the influences above with regards conditioning.

If this is the case wouldn't it be true the other way around too?

There are atheists and irreligious people mostly due to cultural, parental and peer pressure, they are conditioned by their environment. Some get into from genuine experiences in their lives and usually jump into the flavor of irreligion that best fits their worldview at that time, or from the influences above with regards conditioning.

Right?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

What do you mean by "antitype" ? Are you speaking of the prophetic nature of the Genesis account and the fall, etc ?

Yes.

 

[bhsmte]

If this is the case wouldn't it be true the other way around too?

There are atheists and irreligious people mostly due to cultural, parental and peer pressure, they are conditioned by their environment. Some get into from genuine experiences in their lives and usually jump into the flavor of irreligion that best fits their worldview at that time, or from the influences above with regards conditioning.

Right?

If you have objective evidence, why would you need peer pressure and cultural pressures?

Peer and cultural pressure, would only apply to ignoring the objective evidence, not accepting what is well evidenced.

 

[Davian]

If this is the case wouldn't it be true the other way around too?

There are atheists and irreligious people mostly due to cultural, parental and peer pressure, they are conditioned by their environment. Some get into from genuine experiences in their lives and usually jump into the flavor of irreligion that best fits their worldview at that time, or from the influences above with regards conditioning.

Right?

It is my understanding that the statistics support the notion that children tend to take on the religion of their culture, their locale, their parents. Additional influence is applied in religious schooling, and at church.

Religion and children - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How would that work for disbelief?

 

[Eyes wide Open]

If this is the case wouldn't it be true the other way around too?

There are atheists and irreligious people mostly due to cultural, parental and peer pressure, they are conditioned by their environment. Some get into from genuine experiences in their lives and usually jump into the flavor of irreligion that best fits their worldview at that time, or from the influences above with regards conditioning.

Right?

Well I'd say it was true that all people were subject to cultural, parental and peer pressure which could influence them in any manner or things, atheism being one of them, but I do not believe that atheism or atheist's in general come to the point of atheism in the same manner as the religious, nor do they do so under the same amount of pressure.
I was Baptised a Catholic, I have it stamped in my passport and written on my birth certificate. I went to a Catholic all boys school and was under pressure to have my daughters Baptised from family members. I don't see infant ceremonies bringing children to atheism, I haven't yet seen an all boys schools for atheist's, nor any identification on any legal documents from birth. That said they may well be around. At a certain point in time you almost had to be religious because culturally whole community's, indeed countries demanded it, some still do. You could have been ostracised from the community, rejected by your family or killed for renouncing your faith, the pressure to conform was very self evident. If you remove those influences then its a different ball game.

The removal of those influences is actually quite hard, and if one does have a mystical/transpersonal experience as stated before, then its more than likely that they will latch onto those influences like a rock in a fast flowing river because it gives the person something to feel focussed on, or involved with, a sense of identity and community and then more often than not that is the very thing they defend, but for those that perhaps want to try and swim the river, its not a good position to adopt.

 

[Ana the Ist]

You may be referring to the writing of history, not the history itself. History is usually a record or account of past events. The past event I'm speaking of occurred in the Garden of Eden, as recorded in bible history.

Ahhh...ok, I thought you meant the beginning of written history. One could easily make the same claim of any religion Old Guy...all the ones I can think of have a creation myth.

 

[yesyoushould]

Ahhh...ok, I thought you meant the beginning of written history. One could easily make the same claim of any religion Old Guy...all the ones I can think of have a creation myth.

Are you saying that we should consider your beliefs "myths"? I'm confused by your post.

What do you believe in? I mean, what is your stance? Are you suggesting that people do not believe in anything, the ground they are walking on? As if it doesn't even exist? Please help me understand.

 

[quatona]

Why are there religious people?

What kind of reason are you asking/looking for? Psychological, historical, cultural, traditional, scientific...?

Christianity has an answer

What´s the answer of Christianity? And does it explain why there are religious people in general, or does it only exlain why there are Christians?

 

[quatona]

If this is the case wouldn't it be true the other way around too?

No, not necessarily.
Atheism, to begin with, has no dogma, has no tradition, has no subculture, has no ceremonies, has no ideals, has no direct implications on to how to lead your life, has little to offer in terms of social bonding etc.etc. - and thus can´t even be compared to a positive belief system.
It´s just a lack of one particular belief, after all. You keep forgetting this.

There are atheists and irreligious people mostly due to cultural, parental and peer pressure, they are conditioned by their environment. Some get into from genuine experiences in their lives and usually jump into the flavor of irreligion that best fits their worldview at that time, or from the influences above with regards conditioning.

Right?

No, I don´t think that turning the tables works that well in this particular case.

 

[Colter]

No, not necessarily.
Atheism, to begin with, has no dogma, has no tradition, has no subculture, has no ceremonies, has no ideals, has no direct implications on to how to lead your life, has little to offer in terms of social bonding etc.etc. - and thus can´t even be compared to a positive belief system.
It´s just a lack of one particular belief, after all. You keep forgetting this.



No, I don´t think that turning the tables works that well in this particular case.

Atheism is a negative belief system, one could say it has a "dogma" or doctrine of doubt in that Atheist commonly make the same claims in the promotion of their belief.

 

[quatona]

Atheism is a negative belief system,

No, it isn´t.

one could say it has a "dogma" or doctrine of doubt in that Atheist commonly make the same claims in the promotion of their belief.

Yeah, "one could say" a lot of things...the question, however, is if saying them makes sense, and - assuming for a moment they´d make sense - how relevant they are for the topic at hand.

 

[Colter]

No, it isn´t.

Yeah, "one could say" a lot of things...the question, however, is if saying them makes sense, and - assuming for a moment they´d make sense - how relevant they are for the topic at hand.

To an unwise person a lot of things might seem logical.

Atheism becomes a religion or a belief system when it goes from being merely a neutral "I don't believe" position to the promotion of non-belief in a social system.

 

[yesyoushould]

Atheism becomes a religion or a belief system when it goes from being merely a neutral "I don't believe" position to the promotion of non-belief in a social system.

That makes sense.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

Atheism is a negative belief system, one could say it has a "dogma" or doctrine of doubt in that Atheist commonly make the same claims in the promotion of their belief.

No, it's not. (Gosh, that was easy).

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Atheists have been using these forums to dogmatically promote their disbelief as long as I have been a member (and probably before that as well).