If it were rational to believe only in Christ you wouldn't have so many people not believing in Christ. In fact, if it was so evident about God and Christ, you wouldn't have whole CONTINENTS of people worshipping other deities. And if there were great psychological reasons to disbelieve, more people would do it- and there wouldn't be so many silly Gods.
The rational conclusion a person comes to, when looking at humans, and all the Gods they have believed in and the evolution OF those Gods, is that primitive people have primitive Gods and sophisticated people have sophisticated Gods. The mere variability of the Gods and the fact that they DO change, lend weight to the idea that they are human constructs. If there were only one true "God", as some human religions conceptualize him, her or it, it would certainly be more evident. Gods tend to fill the void of unanswered questions with pretty (or not so pretty) stories. What this leads a rational person to suspect- is that a horrible story, seems to be superior to the unknown for a great many people. Now at first blush that might seem odd- but look at the number of people who love conspiracy theories- a good story, no matter how unbelievable, is preferable to a mundane apparent truth. Most people love to clump together. Most people want to belong, so badly, that they are willing to be very cruel to be part of a group. Why some people are not like that, it's difficult to say. There probably IS a psychological reason, but I doubt it has much to do with Freud. I'm sure it has more to do with the ability to tolerate uncertainty.
Fear of despair and unhappiness seems to be the reason most people believe in Gods. We can surmise this from their own testimony. How many times have I heard "I was never truly happy until...". There also seems to be a lack of self control among people who believe- for often they say things like "I was a very bad person doing X, Y and Z, until I found....whomever..." Now for the person who is already very happy and is not doing anything wrong, and who has never lost control, and who has always had an internal moral compass, what is the need to choose among a host of seemingly irrational choices, a God or Gods to worship? |
