Why Do We Need a Belief in God? (Michael Shermer)

Michael Shermer is the author of The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths.

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[itsjustameme]

God is a predator waiting to devour you. His analogy is actually good on several levels.

[RichardScorgie]

I agreed with Michael up until the  statement of how we needed religion then. I imagine we could have gotten a bit further ahead without the sacrifice, stunting of science, and various atrocities committed in the name of God.  

[allxtarmusic]

To divert us from the harsh reality of no life after death

[disclaimermorgan]

Why do people believe in God? Because they want to believe everything is being taken care of, and that they being cradled by omnipotent father figure. It helps them make sense of the world around them, as they cannot understand it themselves. It makes their lives easier than trying to decode things themselves. For example, this person I work with told me she told God she was hungry, and soon after she saw doughnuts on a table for her to eat. She praised God, and felt loved and like He answered her. Of course there was a meeting and there were leftover treats available to everyone, so it wasn't God, but just a coincidence that a meeting was held hours before she felt the need to ask God for food.

But she didn't rationalize the situation like I did. She believed God did it just for her, when in fact there was more to it than that; much more to it, in fact. But whatever makes her happy.  

[bonwell]

I would argue that religion is not the result of our instinctive belief in agency; rather, religion was the creation of men who had discovered a way to take advantage of that instinctive belief. History could have proceeded differently without the advent of religion, but it's unlikely—someone would have capitalized on this part of humanity eventually.

[danchris]

people really need to start making a distinction between "God" and "the Christian concept of God"

[geekatron]

While it is self evident that a Bronze Age book written by scientific illiterates has little relevance in guiding the affairs of modern technologically-advanced humans, it must also be noted that logicians such as Godel and Turing have proven that there do exist questions that can be shown to be true but are not provable. An example of such would be the Goldbach Conjecture.

[mapmanic]

Missing a biggy: Fear of death. Patternicity can explain the impetus for seeing spirits or gods everywhere, but couple that with the need to alleviate the terror of knowing you're going to die... so much more comforting to posit the existence of disembodied spirits & believe that you're going to continue even after your body's expired... maybe even as a god or angel yourself... maybe you'll get your own planet afterwards!

[nicholas]

This is a little off topic, but I can't seem to find a relevant video.  Maybe someone can suggest one.  I heard someone suggest that religion was created by the powerful to appease the masses.  "Try to tolerate your miserable existence, while I live in opulence, because you will be rewarded for your meekness and obedience in the afterlife".  Any thoughts?  So the authors of the bible may have simple been hired writers for the kings.

[chrisose]

I wonder if those people who were sacrificed in attempts to appease various gods (Including the Abrahamic God) thought religion was a force for good?

[zkhizo]

Well, I can think of at least one reason right now from the top of my head, why being eaten can actually be a good thing: if the theory of the body as a vehicle for the soul is correct, then being suddenly eaten by a predator would be actually similar to having your car (or any other gadget for that matter) irreparably breaking down, so you would have to buy a new one. So having your soul released back to the ether or wherever, would be a good opportunity to reincarnate into a fresh new young body. Who wouldn't like that? 

[sendtoanthony]

We'll all be lunch sooner or later.

[romney]

or the humans who were not afraid of rustles in the grass were the ones who lead the way....