Because if there is no God, then it would mean that they would be responsible for their own lives. In all likelihood, they would implode under the weight of the responsibility.

Because the livelihoods of millions and millions of people depend on it, either directly (priests, pastors, mullahs, rabbis) or indirectly (politicians).

Now if only they could come up with a concept of "god" that even begins to approach coherency.

1) People tremble in their boots over the idea that total oblivion is the only thing awaiting them after their life is over. It means they cannot justify their laziness, their impurities or even their daily activities so easily anymore. It's easy to just schluff-off and think, 'Bah, it won't matter in a thousand years anyway,' when one thinks that this is just some precursor step towards eternal bliss.

2) God is a big enabler and scapegoat. In some instances, this can be demonstrably positive ('...Jesus gave me the confidence to stand-up for myself!') or negative ('...I really thought praying to Jesus was a better idea than giving my daughter proper medical treatment,'); though the positive results can easily be duplicated in secular terms, while the negatives cannot.

3) There is a big financial interest amongst religious establishments to keep belief alive.

4) Some people enjoy being able to blame their own intolerances and bigotry on a deity.

5) There is considerable investment people have made in God / Heaven. They don;t want to fold-out of their hand with so much already on the table.

6) Hell is a terrifying concept. However illogical Pascal's Wager is, it's trotted around by theologians for a reason: it works. No sane person wants to burn in a lake of fire forever, so if they believe it's plausible that they might in the event that they start to doubt, you'd better believe that they will condition themselves never to doubt.

7) People conflate their 'personal encounters' with things like the moving of the Holy Spirit through mass with solid evidence.

8 ) People do not generally like to think that there is something that they both simply do not know, and cannot readily learn. This creates a perception where science is seen to have gaping holes simply because it hasn't answered every possible question about everything yet. Where those percieved gaps are, people insert God.

Incidentally, Cap'n, this is what 'Digital Physics', your own God belief, is guilty of doing.

9) Religion is a 'meme'; a sort of 'infectious' habit. A person's brain is very vulnerable, particularly at a young age, to being victimized by this meme.

10) Humans are social animals. We love having company (with rare exceptions, often caused by mental disorder). Imaginary deities provide people with constant company.

They disregard science because science makes people think and thinking shows religion to be false.

It makes people feel warm and fuzzy inside to think they have an invisible friend who loves them and will cuddle them and make everything better when they die.

When I was a christian I didn't fear science proving god wrong.God was always right.I knew that. If science came up with something to the contary, I knew it was totally wrong. There was never any question in my mind.

Many people are so invested in their religion they wouldn't leave it in the face of undeniable evidence.Sometimes I think that's a good thing. I've known some people who are so convinced it's impossible to live a good life without god, I half expect them to start kiling if it's ever disproved.

I guess that's why we get that argument a lot: because it's such a powerful idea that once you let the dog off the chain, all hell will break loose. The truth, of course, is that we've already done the worst we can. Our actual behaviour doesn't really change all that much depending on which mystical tradition we belong to.

Also, Captain, not that I actually expect you to "deconvert", but I think I can speak for all of us when I say you'd be a welcome addition to pissed-off atheism.

My take on the matter:

Belief despite understanding the logic, and three steps to freedom

Oh, and have I asked before... are you aware that when Adam says, "I reject your reality and substitute my own," it's because he's just been proven wrong?

Good to know.

Frankly, knowing that in the end, whatever happens won't matter to me for more than a few decades makes it even easier to think 'bah, it won't matter in a thousand years'. Heck, it probably won't matter in twenty! The only thing I can have any surety about is that I am, and on some level, I admit to harboring the thought "once I'm not, who gives a shit?"

I assume you are refering to the fact that we were all dead before were born (or a few months earlier if being more pedantic)

I've was dead for apprxomiately 17? billion years

your way off base here.  christian philosophy states that everyone IS responsible for their own actions and must atone for them when they die.

frankly i dont buy that whales and dolphins practice homosexuality.  and how wrong you are.  no amount of scientific knowledge can knock down religion. 

Uhhhh, think what Geirj meant was that many believers in a God tend to allow him to "take care of things" and often in that way they do NOT believe in cleaning up their own messes or for that matter cleaning up their act. Also, since they rely on God for "direction", it would be difficult (if there is no god as Geirj said), figuring out what to do, what goals to set, how to behave and so forth.

 Hey, don't stop at marine mammals (and avians), there are primate homos, too. Oh, wait: isn't the bonobo, one of our closest animal relatives, the most homo of them all?

Our human homo-ness pales in comparison to that of the bonobo, which uses sexual contact as a kind of social communication. Giraffes, American Bison, all kinds of birds ... man! Nature's like a giant gay pride parade.

You might say "argument from nature", but seriously, at some point God had to say "Gay is OK", because nature digs its girl-on-girl, and doesn't exactly shy away from ass sex.

Why are my threads shifting to homosexuality lately?

Haisch said this? Please provide the quote and cite the source.

Define God, please. So very many to choose .....

GOD = meaning, purpose, joy, hope ?

GOD = designer of hell, confusion, fear, pain, hopelessness ?

                         conclusion, 

God = All of us of course ..... and all the rest.

What's IIRC?

God is love.

"God is Love" ? - Well we could argue about that, BUT "LOVE" is indeed ALL the answer to our problems of unnecessary suffering .....

   .... as pain and fear "teach" us.  There cannot be Love without it's opposite in our existing human form. Utopia is a human impossibility, but what the hell, let's go for it ! LOVE LOVE LOVE .....  

See, this is not difficult. Love is important.

On second thought maybe we should go back to male dolphins blowing each other.

And that's why I've always enjoyed speaking with you Cap'n.  You have some nutty ideas, but ultimately, you are well informed, far from ignorant and you seem generally willing to consider other philosophies.

Really? You lose me there. Cap'n you are the exception, not the rule when it comes to faith and god belief. Other theists are NOT like you generally speaking. They are largely ignorant, stubborn and overall, consumed by group-think and fear. People generally, not just theists, don't generally enjoy having their world view turned upside down, regardless of the facts or reality presented. Perhaps I've been jaded over the years (my gmail inbox is generally a horror show that only serves to confirm what I say here), but even among my own close friends and family who believe, I see the same things.

Indeed, most theist literature does that. Fuck, if I have to hear somebody quote "A purpose driven life" again, I'm simply going to stop opening my inbox altogether.

How do you think it makes me feel? They aren't just insulting my intelligence, but my chosen profession and reality in general.

And I think you just nailed it there, because you can actually bring yourself to ask that question. Most people NEVER get to that point.

Frankly, Cap'n you do not strike me as a person who NEEDS or WANTS to believe in god. I think you did arrive where you are after careful consideration - or perhaps you were brought up to believe and convinced yourself, in a rational fashion, that your beliefs were valid. Now, I certainly will butt heads with you on your conclusion and pick apart your premesis, but you do defend it cohenently and usually logically.

How much that sets you apart and above the fray of the common believer I think is lost on you.

Like I said, you are NOT like other believers, and I think you project your own thought processes onto them on occasion. We're you outside the box, you'd understand how atypical you really are.

It took me a long time to get this myself. Being an engineer and I scientist, I'm conditioned to think logically and rationally - and I used to expect the same from people around me. I don't anymore, because that is NOT how most people think, and certainly not how the average religious person thinks.

I won't bother hashing out again the resons people like that believe, others have already covered it.

I will however express again my confusion as to why you aren't in our camp rather than theirs. Granted, you'd probably deny being in any particular camp, and that is sort of my point.

Wouldn't you agree, intellectually speaking, you have more in common with atheists than other god believers?

I certainly see it that way.

So you are saying my life has no meaning, purpose or hope?

The level of this delusion is not only disgusting, its insulting.

I'm saying that a world without God is ultimately one without meaning, purpose, and hope. To have ultimate hope is to have faith in the ultimate.