Why do people have to believe in something???

[HobomanToTheHouse]

I just feel like everyone is saying that you need to believe in something to get hope...but I dont...why does you need to believe in something, like god, to be able to go on??Why does you have to clenche to the thought of an upper-being and having to do good deeds to get a place in heaven???I can't seem to figure out that!!!can someone please tell me why and of course, disguss why...
(this is my first shot at this and i really think i suck, but hey...i had to give it a shot...)  

[Cresent_Wolf]

I was rasied in the christian way so of course I do believe in God. I look around outside not at the buildings or stores but at the nature around me and somehow I believe that it had to be created by a higher being than Man itself. My guess is that people want to believe there is something after this life. Everyone needs hope. No one I know likes the thought of their world ending for them to die.  

[CainZeros]

Religion started with ancient humans wanting to explain everything and not having the science to explain most of it like we do. The did certain things to please the gods so that they would have a successful harvest and what not. To this day religious people cling to their desire to believe in something more powerful than themselves and to please said powerful being. If there is an after life, sweet, if not, you won't notice darkness and be bored for eternity, everything will just cease to exist and you won't notice anything at all, not even darkness.  

[Phaeton]

People don't have to believe in things. Sure it's a cold, hard, empty world outside the comforts of the imaginary but it's the truth. You just have to weigh the options. Live in a comfortable world of lies, or an empty world of the truth.  

[Die_Katze]

Going more off of what you said Phaeton. Hope is a good thing to have, but you don't need religion to draw upon hope. Hope can come from other things not religous. An example is sometimes people gain hope from the birth of a child or a cure for a disease. Like Phaeton said it would be an empty world of lies, but that's where you make up your own truths. Me having particular religion it's what I do.  

[Blinding Onyx]

Becouse,as humans it makes us feel safer from the true dark reality.Becouse,the cold,hard truth is-we put too much into our beliefs to look at it logiclly and that's okay,but it can go over board sometimes,but again,it makes us humans ffeel safer,and better about ourselves,and it helps us"fit in"when truely you can't believe in anything other than what you're told.  

[Yoru Kurosawa]

It's human nature to believe in things. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it explains things to you. You can't explain EVERYTHING scientifically. Oh, people can TRY, but they can't. And when worst comes to worst, they tell you you're crazy. In any case, you need to believe in something, otherwise things are going to be bleak, and you'll have nothing to hold on to.  

[Leedrian]

Kura has a point, I think that believing in things is a way for the human mind to ocupy itself, to make life more interesting. People fear things they don't understand so they come up with stories to try and explain them, and i think that is how most religions come about, people trying to explain things they fear.  

[Mr Sand man]

Because it gives people hope in dark times. It let's them feel that for everything they've done they can't regret because they think what they did was right. It stops far at a certain level. Which in my book is the most important thing eva.

 

[Phaeton]

Kura Ookami

It's human nature to believe in things. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it explains things to you. You can't explain EVERYTHING scientifically. Oh, people can TRY, but they can't. And when worst comes to worst, they tell you you're crazy. In any case, you need to believe in something, otherwise things are going to be bleak, and you'll have nothing to hold on to.

That's not entirely true. Children aren't born believing in deities or anything of the sort. They're taught by their parents and naturally accept what their parents teach them.

I can tell you there are plenty of non religious people who don't think things are bleak and have nothing to hold onto.  

[xCaptain Sensiblex]

pirate
it takes the mystery and magick outta yer life if ya don't believe in nothin.
I always say ya gotta believe in somefink 3nodding  

[morgenshii]

It gives people some purpose/meaning in life...  

[cookie_pirate_sora506]

People don't NEED to believe in anything. Just like everything else humans do, we only believe in things because we want to believe. Yeah, I got that from an episode of Cowboy Bebop, but the rest is me, I swear. You can force yourself to do alot of things and religion is one of them. But not to knock it religion or the forces that be. People, ALL people, have to believe in something to have a life with meaning and I'm not about just God. Believing in yourself and things you do have meaning, even if it's just to one or two people, that's what I believe in.  

[KittenOnMars]

What's wrong with people having something to believe in? If it makes them happy and makes them want to be better people, what's the harm?

And anyway, even NOT believing in something is believing because you believe in nothing. That was confusing sweatdrop

Reality is not dark or cold, it's how you percieve it. Reality is what we want it to be, it's all a matter of how your mind works. The "truth" is not something that's automatically known, it's something we search for.