by James Lynne

Created on: October 22, 2010

People believe in God for a variety of reasons including historical precedence, cultural peer pressure, the desire for immortality, and as explanation of our internal response to life’s mysteries. The idea that we are merely random elements within a large universe is more than most people can emotionally accept.  To cope with life, humans apparently need to believe something is in charge of everything around us.  Belief in a “god concept” fills that need.

HISTORICAL PRECEDENCE:

The sun, because of its ever present role in the sky, was the first god of numerous civilizations. Worship of the other elements followed.   Worshipping the elements allowed early humans to put the world in order, mentally and emotionally.  It was clear to them that there was something bigger than themselves they could not explain.  To explain, they assigned the unknown to a source, to a god who needed no further explanation. 

Natural elements, explained as gods who controlled the world, seemed an acceptable rationale for what primitive man did not understand.  Historically, in our limited capacity to understand the universe around us, our natural response is to explain the unknown as the work of something greater than us, a god.  Modern man, following historical precedent, continues the practice of explaining the complicated mysteries around him as the works of god.  With minor exceptions, the god “du jour” in the Twenty-First Century is the, historical, Old Testament God of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.   

CULTURAL PEER PRESSURE:

Humans are social creatures.  It is apparently in our biology to come together in herds.  In so doing we receive companionship and protection.  In the trade off of giving up individual thought for group thought, we collaborate as cultures.  Cultures, in order to function, must have a common core of beliefs, regulations, and traditions.  It is seemingly a natural quality of man “to go along to get along.”

Religious beliefs are part of the cultural process. As a result, we have a strong tendency to accept beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors within the cultural group.   In order to maintain status within the culture we do not question these accepted beliefs. Built in to most major religious groups is a “fail safe” concept to keep followers in line.  Within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam it is forbidden to

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