I see this thread's grown since this morning.


There's lots of reasons why someone might belong to a religion, hopefully it's because they believe in what the religion teaches. In the religion I belong to we are encouraged to find out for ourself whether or not it is true based on scripture, prayer and personal reflection. We believe we can receive a personal witness from God that it is true but that it is completely dependant on us, not anyone else telling us it's true.

Some religions are similar, some are not. Some simply tell you it's true and expect you to believe it. But for those who feel they've found out for themselves that a religion is true, well, how can you argue with that? And vice-versa; how can I tell you something is true with only my word? There would be no reason for you to believe it nor should you. You would be a fool to believe it based on someones word. But if you went through what many people have, to find out if something is true, and you recieved an answer, then you'd know what I mean. Without that, I simply sound like a fool to you.

Funny thing is the whole thing could be emotion, and most religious people are aware of that. God may be nothing more than a figment of millions of peoples imaginations. But whether God really exists and answers prayers or whether it's nothing more than biological emotion, it's hella powerful and has a whole lot of people believing in something. Some of those people believe simply because someone tells them it's true or because they have the fear of retribution. But some believe because they truly believe in their mind and heart.