Why isn't everyone Atheist?

If you are brainwashed from when you are born then it is very hard to quit religion. You have a "fear" instilled into you that if you break away you will go to hell. Or at least that was my experience.

Religious people have a need to believe and want to believe. I lack either and am an atheist.

People believe in the God of their parents and their grandparents, most people do. That's to say if you were born in Ancient Greece you'd be worshiping Zeus, in Old Norse times you'd be worshiping Thor and so on. I believe this links back to the hard wiring of doing as we are told by authority to keep us safe (a trait evolution would favour), for example your Mum tells you not to walk too near the cliff edge.

I think it's natural to see all religions as fairy-tales when you realise how many there are. Atheists don't believe in some 2,700 Gods and monotheists don't believe in 2,699. As a percentage they are nearly as atheistic as me, they are very nearly an atheist.

Richard Dawkins, as always, puts it best: "If you feel trapped in the religion of your upbringing, it would be worth asking yourself how this came about. The answer is usually some form of childhood indoctrination. If you are religious at all it is overwhelmingly probable that your religion is that of your parents. If you were born in Arkansas and you think Christianity is true and Islam false, knowing full well that you would think the opposite if you had been born in Afghanistan, you are the victim of childhood indoctrination. Mutatis mutandis if you were born in Afghanistan."

I don't understand why the fact there is no afterlife is depressing to some people. Life is finite. And precious. And beautiful. Enjoy :)

The Atheist position is equally stupid in the face of quantum science . Quantum science contradicts the classical materialist view of nature and these now "working" materialist beliefs are also the rational underpinnings of atheism.

I am not suggesting that quantum proves the existence of God but it opens such an undiscovered and strange dimension that no reasonable person can claim to know enough to rule god out. Certainly consciousness is starting to look much more important to nature than was ever suspected by classical science.

So perhaps 'the load of old bollocks' may be a crude and flowery embellishment of an intuition we are only just beginning to understand

-The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.[1]

Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. As Kruger and Dunning conclude, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others" (p. 1127).[2]-

-Confirmation bias (also called confirmatory bias or myside bias) is a tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses.[Note 1][1] People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. For example, in reading about gun control, people usually prefer sources that affirm their existing attitudes. They also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).-

Most people are not very bright and are threatened emotionally by the prospect of doing some actual thinking.

-Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.- Christopher Hitchens

It is hard to understand as we all tend to try and credit people with a modicum of common sense and intelligence. Then you read the replies from believers posted on this thread and you realise there are those that don't. It's depressing but that's life.

Because we have the right to have our own thoughts and some of us have sense I'm sorry if you want to control what I think oh and let's reverse it why isn't every one Christian or why isn't every one Cathlec why isn't every one a jahoba witness .... see we're I'm gettin at any body can ask the same question about there own religion

Well I'd say just because something SEEMS unlikely doesn't necessarily mean it is utterly impossible, however I have to agree that any god I've ever heard about sounds distinctly MAN made (rather than woman made).

"Why doesn't everyone just realise that this whole thing is impossible and stupid!"?

Excellent programming, FEAR, inability to think critically, FEAR, Gullibility and...

Let's not forget FEAR ;)

Why can't Christians be honest?

Why can’t they just admit and or say:

"I know my beliefs are illogical, but I've been brainwashed into believing these things my entire life."

OR

"I am too weak to live in this world, without the hope that there is someone watching over me, and I need to believe in an afterlife".

OR

"I am too scared to even consider the possibility that there is no God, for fear of being punished by him".

OR

"The thought of hell is so terrifying to me, that I have to believe, and be good".

Simple FEAR is the basis of their belief.

Without that FEAR none would believe.

~

Weak mindedness, gullibility or they just can't accept that death is the end. I can't. I don't want my existence to end but know it will. It just depends on how much they've been indoctrinated by their own parents, due to human nature it's easy to be brainwashed. Especially at a young age.

Not everyone is atheist because they're just not as intelligent, or analytical as you are, or born in England where it isn't really forced upon you except in elementary/primary school. It just depends on which one.

I never met a British person I didn't like. What you wrote is excellent.

Why isn't everyone normal? Stupidity is part of the problem. Also the god-soaked are cowards. They don't want to grow up and face facts because facts make them cry.

The thing about religion is that it creates a mindset that destroys our ability to distinguish between what is real and what is complete bs. You were fortunate enough to finally see through the bs. I'm sure plenty of other people in your class silently nodded their heads.

Interestingly, these same people are probably skeptical of various other claims EXCEPT when it comes to their religion. It's called special pleading.