Why do so many believe? Is it fear of death, peer pressure, family pressure, a need to have an explanation of the universe? Originally belief was based on ignorance, today it’s most likely ego.
Lets go back a couple thousand years. Everyone knew that the earth was the center of the universe with all things revolving around it. Man was easily imposing his superiority over all other beings on the planet. The big question remained, how was all this created? There were some believing in idols, multiple gods, etc., but this seemed unnecessarily complicated. Some philosophers of the day speculated on a single God. This seemed to catch on. This God supported the earth being the center of the universe theory. More importantly, this God claimed that man was indeed special and created in His image. This formed the foundation of many religions. Given the ignorance of the day this was easy to sell and fit man’s image of himself. It was a good time to be on earth, at the center of things and related to God.
Then eight or nine hundred years ago, there was a very, very threatening new development, much worse than any devil . . . . . up jumped science. Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and others proved the world was not the center of the universe. Despite efforts by the church to squelch their view, they prevailed. Then the most threatening scientist of all, Darwin, gave his theory of evolution and worst of all, that man descended from other primates. Then it just kept coming with Einstein, Hubble and many many others.
So, after over a thousand years of being like God and at the center of the universe, science showed that earth is a speck among billions and man not much more than a monkey. What a blow to believer’s ego! The way most people fought off these depressing developments was to replace ignorance with blind faith clinging even stronger to God and religion. This also leads them to fight science at every turn; look at the ridiculous intelligent design claims. Religion still holds that earth is special and that man was in the form of God. This preserves believers’ ego.
Somehow atheists’ egos allow them to enjoy the position of most intelligent species on earth, but recognize that they are just a speck on a speck in the universe and will be truly gone in the blink of an eye.
Ah, it is perhaps that simple to observe, but not so simple for the drones. Don’t forget that people who believe REALLY believe. Religious people do many unpleasant things for their God. To accept the fact he doesn’t exist, they must accept the fact that all the blood, sweat, and tears that they poured into their faith was for a game of pretend gone horribly wrong.
Also, don’t forget that for someone who truly believes that they know God and the He loves them and they love him back, accepting atheism is identical to dealing with the death of dear friend.
AND don’t forget the religious scare tactics. A man who loves his wife and is very religious has most likely been convinced that if he accepts atheism, he will begin to cheat on his wife and probably hit her. For fear of what he will become he is afraid of atheism.
AND don’t forget that most likely his family is very religious, they will project whatever repressed desires they might have onto him as the reason for his leaving the flock. They will accuse him of horrible things if he publicly announces that he is an atheist.
This isn’t an apology, I’ve no time for willful ignorance in myself or anyone else. But I was a Christian, and now I am an atheist. It’s a rough road for a while.