Expert: Vincent M. Wales - 8/3/2008

Question
hello:)
since you are an atheist i would like to ask you what do you think about god and why are people so stupid and think that there is a way that god created humans directly when there is so many evidences that we developed and that there were many many creatures in the world even before we existed. i mean. I don't understand how everything emerged from nothing, something had to exist from the beginning(although i believe there is no such thing as the first beginning, since something had to be always here, nothing comes from nothing).
so, how is it possible that the churches still exist based on very very outdated beliefs, and are in my opinion unnecessary institutions. i mean it's ok to teach people that they should not be evil. but there should be other institutions to do that, rather than institutions based on beliefs, which could be based on lies and tricks, made when people couldn't notice them. what do you think can we do to cancel churches as an institution and open a class called moral in schools instead(i mean even parents or kindergarten teachers can tell kids what is right or wrong). cause i believe if there is a god it sure isn't like the churches explain it:) you understand, right? there is more proofs of evolution than there is of existence of a god as it is described in modern religions. what do you think? I think it's impossible to close the churches and use their possesion (which is shamelessly huge) in other more useful intentions. How can people not see that churches are manipulative, money grabbing and unnecessary institution. I mean for example. I read about mohammed, and how he wrote the curan. He used to sometimes change the "massages he got from god" in order to go with the needs of the society and its development:) I mean isn't god supposed to be unmistakable? if i said i see flying marmalade that tells me laws of the world, would people believe me or put me in mental hospital?:) i mean i can't prove it exists, since it only shoves itself to me, when no one else is present or watching . and no one can disprove its existence. But does that mean some people should believe in it, just because it tells me good things?:)i mean, every man can develop rules and moral       that can be just. we don't need to think there is a god in  the shape of an human to control this shit. Isn't it possible that there is just nature, which is functioning in laws of physics and chemics and, we just can't explain the physical thing that made things?:) i believe we just don't have enough knowledge to explain existence jet and that isn't excuse to believe in certain type of god that can't even be proven , so strongly that it can lead to wars or other disputes:)what do you think?. thanks for your time

Answer
Certainly, I see where you're coming from, and agree with much of what you said.  But the question of why so many people in this day and age cling to an archaic belief system is a very complicated one.  Largely, I think it comes down to fear of the unknown.

It's not easy, for example, to accept the inevitability of one's non-existence after death.  It's not like it's a pleasant idea, after all.  So people have a desire - a need, if you will - to believe that death is not the end, that something exists afterward.  To that end, world cultures have created many afterlife ideas... Heaven, Valhalla, the Happy Hunting Grounds...  And in some cases, it's gone hand-in-hand with an elaborate system of beliefs involving various gods and whatnot.

Another thing we humans like is a sense of justice.  No one really likes the idea that good deeds are not ultimately rewarded and bad deeds are not ultimately punished.  So we have that final judgement upon dying... to determine whether we go to the nice place or the bad place, to be rewarded or punished.  It's a sense of justice within ourselves that we need to appease.

And of course, lots of other factors play into it, as well.

It will be a long time, I think, before humanity is mature enough to cast off faith-based beliefs, even though some of us have successfully done so.  Education is key, of course.  Here in the U.S., where education has become so abysmal over the past decades, we've seen religiosity rise.  There's a correlation, I think.  Religion is fading somewhat in other educated countries, but not here, where ignorance is rampant.

The best we can hope for in our lifetimes, I think, is tolerance of each other.  Ironic, then, that the predominant religion, which claims to teach tolerance, is so often used to justify the opposite.