Why do people believe in the supernatural?

[Senor Hoint]

We believe in the supernatural because we're really just stupid monkeys.

[Questatement]

Maybe some people have a hard time with the concept that all of the incredibly intricate and complex laws and principles which govern our universe (many of which are interdependent on others in order for them to function in the first place) all arose simultaneously and intertwined without direction to become what we (in our modernity) have yet to even fully comprehend and perhaps never will?

Personally, I find the lack of a supernatural element difficult to believe.

[Cephus]

We believe in the supernatural because we're really just stupid monkeys.

Some stupider than others.

[Peter]

Maybe some people have a hard time with the concept that all of the incredibly intricate and complex laws and principles which govern our universe (many of which are interdependent on others in order for them to function in the first place) all arose simultaneously and intertwined without direction to become what we (in our modernity) have yet to even fully comprehend and perhaps never will?

Personally, I find the lack of a supernatural element difficult to believe.

What I will never understand is how some people that can't believe our universe just happened have no difficulty believing that an even more complex and mysterious creator intelligence just happened. A double standard like that should make your head explode.

[Charlatan]

What I will never understand is how some people that can't believe our universe just happened have no difficulty believing that an even more complex and mysterious creator intelligence just happened. A double standard like that should make your head explode.

I believe in both.

[Peter]

I believe in both.

Is that painful?

[barts]

It causes me to wonder why do people believe such outlandish things?

In part, I hold the opinion that "people believe such outlandish things" because it is easy. Trying to understand the real world is incredibly difficult. It requires often decades of study and deliberation, and even then one is never sure one's views are correct. But religion can be grasped in mere minutes. The threshold is barely there.

I suspect various people have various reasons for believing outlandish things, but a prime motivator in my view is that believing outlandish things requires minimal effort.

[Peter]

In part, I hold the opinion that "people believe such outlandish things" because it is easy. Trying to understand the real world is incredibly difficult. It requires often decades of study and deliberation, and even then one is never sure one's views are correct. But religion can be grasped in mere minutes. The threshold is barely there.

I suspect various people have various reasons for believing outlandish things, but a prime motivator in my view is that believing outlandish things requires minimal effort.

I have to agree and I have often argued that becoming a believer is like pushing the big red EASY button of life in that you're spoon fed everything after that.

[Questatement]

What I will never understand is how some people that can't believe our universe just happened have no difficulty believing that an even more complex and mysterious creator intelligence just happened. A double standard like that should make your head explode.

Is it?

In our universe, everything tends to have a beginning (at least by way of conversion) only because we are bound on a linear time scale.

Outside of that restriction, eternity 'past,' as it were, is fair game.

[Jack]

Trying to understand the real world is incredibly difficult.

It can also be incredibly depressing to someone emotionally unequipped to handle it. Occasionally theists here will mention how desolate the atheistic view of life is to them. It's easy to understand the allure of an afterlife if the finality of death is unacceptable.

[finder]

In part, I hold the opinion that "people believe such outlandish things" because it is easy. Trying to understand the real world is incredibly difficult. It requires often decades of study and deliberation, and even then one is never sure one's views are correct. But religion can be grasped in mere minutes. The threshold is barely there.

If that's true, is that then why there are so many former theists who misrepresent theism by projecting their "fears of death" they had as theists onto theists presently? Because they only took "mere minutes" to acclimate themselves properly? If so it seems to go against their claims of sincerity of their once held faith but then again most of their arguments do that.

[Jack]

If that's true, is that then why there are so many former theists who misrepresent theism by projecting their "fears of death" they had as theists onto theists presently?

This doesn't make sense. Theists, past or present, avoid the fear of death by imagining an afterlife. The very natural "fear of death" is dealt with in many ways by everyone. Theists tend to do it by belief in the afterlife while atheists regard the inevitable as a natural aspect of life. Theists then and now are little different from one another. A Christian from the 10th century and one from the 21st both base their beliefs and opinions on the same Bible.

Because they only took "mere minutes" to acclimate themselves properly?

A completely off-the-mark interpretation of bart's comment.

If so it seems to go against their claims of sincerity of their once held faith but then again most of their arguments do that.

Your posts lately exhibit a fixation on denouncing the experiences of former theists. Does our having abandoned religious faith confound you so much? Does it cause distress and threaten your faith? What other reason can there be for your inability to accept other people at their word?