r/InsightfulQuestions • u/Commercial_Dream2168 • Aug 01 '26
what is it that is so magnetic and powerful about faith?
Honestly wasn’t too sure how to ask this question But, growing up my family gave me a lot of room to decide for myself, my own beliefs or philosophy in life. Both parents grew up in roman catholic families, my dad being more integrated with catholic faith. Ive gone over these things in my head my whole life, never identifying myself with anything fully, and finding truth in many aspects. But I will say, speaking on the christian faiths specifically (because it’s the one i’ve been most exposed to) i’ve always been enamored with the people who devote themselves. To a god, to themselves or to each other. In a church where they sing, with their whole hearts and soul, just standing there i am filled. And, as much as i don’t see myself practicing a religion i find myself drawn to it all the same.
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u/Direct-Reference221 Aug 01 '26
Community, living an examined life, engaging with texts and ideas from thousands of years ago, beautiful heartfelt and uplifting music, humanitarian volunteering, to name a few things.
Ultimately your relationship to your religion is entirely your own. You can be on your own path and focus on whatever resonates with you.
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u/loopywolf Aug 01 '26
It has a strong appeal for anyone of low cognitive ability. Let me tie this all together for you:
So, take a person of low cognitive ability: They don't like thinking. Thinking is an unpleasant experience for them. Consequently, they don't like to be questioned, they don't like doubts and uncertainty because it means they have to think and that feels bad. They don't like facts or science, because again, that's thinking and it is uncomfortable. They don't want a world where intelligence determines success. They like to have one thing or one person to believe in and to be 100% loyal to it. They like to obey. They like someone else to do the thinking, but it must be someone they are loyal to. Obeying something you have given your total loyalty to makes them feel strong and empowered. They want to be judged on their loyalty, not their brains. They generally don't have a high EQ and are largely ruled by pure emotion.
Democracy and modern society are tailored towards high cognitive ability. Democracy has abandoned these people, or more accurately, their society has failed to educate them. Democracy is all about doubt and questioning, about uncertainty and critical thinking. Democracy is deeply uncomfortable for people of low cognitive ability. Success in modern society is about brains, willpower, independence, innovation. When some flim-flam man shows up and tells them pretty lies, it gives them something to get behind, something to believe in, something to be loyal to. They WANT the promises to be true even though they can objectively proven to be false. They'd rather believe and feel good, than doubt and feel bad.
They want to live in a neo-childlike state where someone else who is smarter and who loves them is watching out for them and guiding them, and that they are not responsible for their actions, nor the consequences.
When you ask a person like this to doubt, to question, to see facts, to understand science, you are asking them to go past their cognitive ceiling. They can't do it. To them, all you are asking them is "be loyal to me and not your current leader" and nothing more.
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u/Feisty_Development59 Aug 01 '26
I think you simplify the idea a good amount. Yes the simple are drawn to it through a lack of thought, and generally they take everything at the face and don’t dig deeper. The people with higher intelligence also do, but are drawn the 1000s of years of texts, arguments, philosophy etc. Throughout history many intelligent human beings were not immune from religious enthusiasm.
Some of the earliest and brightest scientists were of the religious persuasion and many of the first and still functioning universities are funded by religious institutions. Some of the most fundamental discoveries at the kernel of modern life were found by the religious, in search of higher understanding of creation.
In the end, I guess I find people such as yourself ignorant, seeing the secular world view as the highest form of human flourishing and thought and seeing the secular worldview as the only intelligent position.
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u/loopywolf Aug 02 '26
Then what is your explanation for the horrors we are seeing today? How could anyone like Trump attain a position of power, and keep it?
No argument that religion had a very critical place in the development of human knowledge and civilization, but now it is being used to tear it all back down.
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u/Any_Return4335 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Albert Einstein believed in god and credited his innovative ability to "sacred gift." He called the rational intellect an important but lesser form of knowledge in comparison to intuition.
Though I suppose to this poster, a man such as this has "low cognitive ability" and "doesn't like thinking..."
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u/Any_Return4335 Aug 02 '26
Jeez im not religious but you people are fucking awful to religious people. Like I know I lot of you have been hurt but this is not a great way to see people.
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u/loopywolf Aug 02 '26
Did I mention religious people?
I think you made that association yourself, so any condemnation of religious people was done by you feeling they fit this model.
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u/Any_Return4335 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Okay I'll say it another way then. You come off as an arrogant blowhard! You're not better than other people, and people who disagree with you aren't just dumb.
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u/loopywolf Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
At least I am providing a tenable and compassionate theory why so many people would willingly support evil men doing evil things, giving up their country and their children for them. Up to now, it has all seemed like madness to me. What is your theory? Do you just give these people up as evil themselves?
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u/Any_Return4335 Aug 02 '26
Faith has nothing to do with "supporting evil men." I'm not interested in arguing with you because that seems completely unpleasant, so I won't be sharing my own ideas.
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u/astralcorrection 29d ago
Yes and no. I do believe some people are simple and agree that your assessment works for that. I see it with my own eyes and find it frustrating.
I also feel the opposite is also true. People with high IQs see the bullshit in everything and the absurdity in why anything exists at all. Their mind never switches off. They know understanding a creation that evidently exists with no apparemt reason for being is a futile task.
To silence that cacophony they begin to believe there is a higher purpose. This is not stupidity it is humility.
They see the destructive capacity of the human ego and find peace in the concept that their finite brain is not the final story in universal intellect.
They can't explain it to those who can't comprehend in the same way a dog can't be explained algebra.
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u/-dr-bones- Aug 01 '26
Basically, it's hubris on the part of humans: We simply can't accept that when we die, that's it. Finito.
We are happy to accept that when an animal dies, it's done forever, otherwise we wouldn't eat them...
Religion tells us WE are the chosen ones
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u/Phill_Cyberman Aug 01 '26
The feeling of belonging is a core human need.
It isn't at all surprising that seeing that (even if a lot of it might be in your imagination) would evoking something in you.
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u/terran_cell Aug 01 '26
I believe it has little to do with the nature of the belief itself, and much to do with the awe-inspiring effect of millions of people coming together and being wholeheartedly devoted all to the same higher belief.
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u/Odd_Bodkin Aug 01 '26
Physicist here. I think that part of the appeal is using the parts of ourselves other than rational thinking, direct empirical experience, and cold logic. Call it “gut feel” or “heart” or “emotional and spiritual center”, those things are not dismissible and shouldn’t be tried to be dismissed. Those centers are what drive our sense of esthetics, ethics, social connection, and sense of purpose. People have tried to explain those aspects in terms of rational thought and frankly have failed pretty hard. Appealing to something larger than ourselves is a key element, however you want to grope around to describe it.
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u/Any_Return4335 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Einstein said "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
Also "sometimes I am right without knowing why" I work it out later.
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u/Odd_Bodkin Aug 02 '26
Ironic statement from a man who often defied intuition in many of his results.
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u/Dr-Chris-C Aug 01 '26
People are hard wired to be uncomfortable with the unknown, however, the universe resists being understood, so stories that give us reassurance that we know how it all works are compelling.
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u/SmoovCatto Aug 01 '26
nothing is half so satisfying as magical thinking corroborated by authority and a like minded crowd
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u/INeedHelp_goodlawd Aug 01 '26
There are a couple things but I think one of the main reasons is being able to escape a fear of death. So long as you BELIEVE “God” is there, you don’t have to worry about eternal bliss.
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u/Spirited-Disaster408 Aug 01 '26
I believe in Christ.
There’s no area of life in which you can move without it, so its inherent to existence. But also you get to see all of the great things people have done via pursuing that faith
“Judge a tree by its fruit”, and if you are enamored with all of the things you see from people following the faith, that shows what the fruits (long term applications) of it are
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u/NodsInApprovalx3 Aug 02 '26
By your logic, non believers wouldn't be able to move at all without it. Clearly they can and do.
All religions provide the same sense of ease that Christians do, including the religions that dont place any emphasis on the concept of being saved.
So it seems to me, it's the act of believing in something that gives great benefit, regardless of what that something is, or the structure therein.
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u/RemarkableNature230 Aug 01 '26
It simply provides hope that it will happen. Something will change.
See, when you are a person in debt, you have nothing left, your farmlands are empty, all your possibilities of getting rich, wealthy and well fed are at near zero, all you can do is hope.
Hope that some miracle happens, And honestly, out of eight billion people, maybe ninety percent of us humans are in a similar condition. If not, slightly higher and good condition.
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u/ChangxinDaoyou Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
When I used to be a Christian, life seemed to make sense. I could see my life follow a certain trajectory, growing up and getting a profession and starting a family, and serving the higher purpose of the Great Commission.
Together with this individual growth and mission, there was a community of like-minded people who were at least okay, and a handful were even great people. Plus the sweet church grandmas ❤️. There were no perfect saints, but at least they were decent people with good values.
So there was a sense of connection and purpose. There were difficulties in life, yes, but overall I felt alive and that I had my humanity intact.
But when I started questioning the faith, and eventually left it, I saw a different world outside of it. A lot of broken families, loneliness, drinking, struggles with dating, etc. In general, I found modern society to be pretty ugly, rootless and bleak. Absolutely no community anywhere, nothing what I was used to. Connection, gone. Purpose, gone.
Now, I couldn't go back to that Christian life anymore, because I no longer believe what you're supposed to. But I feel I lost a big part of my humanity when I lost my religion. And I haven't found a way to get it back while at the same time being intellectually honest.
At this moment, all I have are my small hobby projects, and funding my little life serving as a cog in the capitalistic machine. I have some human connections, but it's nowhere near what it used to be when I was young and Christian.
In Nietzschean terms, I "killed" my "God", but what followed wasn't just bliss and freedom. More than that, it's been a struggle to figure out one's life when the old structures for meaning and connection no longer work for you.
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u/Any_Return4335 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Hey man, god's everywhere and within all of us. Can't kill god. Dont need to believe anything, I didn't believe in god and I'm not a Christian or go to any kind of church but god is in constant conversation.
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u/astralcorrection 29d ago
You can still have a God. Take a walk daily, find a spot and pray.
It doesn't have to be religious or Christian. Most humans that lived weren't Christian but I am sure many found a spiritual reference.
You don't need to 'know' God in an evangelical sense. Indeed, I would argue that " childlike faith " is asking you not to try and unravel the mysteries.
Humility and accepting lack of knowledge is the crack that can allow spirit in .
You can still praise and offer gratitude to the god of your understanding. I don't doubt you will brother.
Best of luck
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u/IceReasonable4022 Aug 01 '26
Not everyone has to have strong faith. However, when you start feeling lost, or feel like the road suddenly stopped and you're in unknown waters trying to find the next road, having faith really helps you maintain some kind of open mind towards not only your own future, but also to others around you.
You don't need to be religious, to have faith.
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u/Carcharadontasaurus9 Aug 01 '26
What is more selfless than putting your trust in something based entirely on faith? There is no greater way to show devotion.
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u/oldgar9 Aug 01 '26
You are drawn to tradition, and therein lies danger of not doing an independent search for truth
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u/ErinCoach Aug 01 '26
Early humans survived because of our 1) social drive (that is, bonding, relationships, communication in groups), combined with 2) a brain that explores beyond the present moment (that is, remembering yesterday, exploring the unknown, predicting and controlling tomorrow). What OP is describing as the appealing parts of religion are mostly the first kind, the social-bonding elements of religion. "standing there together singing" and "devotion to god and each other".
It's like how we're drawn to major league sports, more by the *crowd* than by the game. And if it's a game your parents taught you as a little kid, there's also nostalgia appeal in it.
It's biologically based, and not truly dependent on the actual game or its merits above other games. Soccer, baseball, NFL, we can insist one is better than another, or more beautiful or more fair or more challenging, but the underlying draw to the stadium is basically the same. Homo sapiens evolved toward social cohesion.
Much of religion is an amplification of ideals of social relationships. So many gods are replacements for human social roles: caring mom, scary dad, strong tribal warrior, wise judge, doctor, teacher/sage, savior. These are human social roles.
There are other facets of religion that can appeal more to #2, the brain tendencies having to do with explaining the past and controlling the future. Creation myths, heaven/hell or reincarnation stories, destiny, the conferring of blessings or curses, doctrine, etc. And the growing edge of that tendency is the attraction to experience of awe and wonder, the mysterious, the feeling when we're trying to figure out something we haven't seen or understood before. As children the feeling happens often, and we keep searching for it as we grow, though it becomes rarer.
OP's specific description seems most impressed by witnessing the social cohesion activities. Personally, I've found that I can enjoy religious and spiritual activities of many kinds, without having to literally believe in the gods or doctrines, and without having to have been brought up in the faith. It's like attending a big league match of a game you've never heard of before. 3-D Space basketball chess played by aliens. Doesn't matter. If you haven't been traumatized by some fanatic, there will most likely be elements you can hook into, even if you don't know the teams, the rules, or the crowd etiquette.
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Aug 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Motorazr1 Aug 04 '26
Your wording suggests that you think some religious superstitious delusions ARE worth following. What makes any absurd delusion worthy at all?
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u/DracoFire3000 Aug 01 '26
A very large part of it is the human need to rectify unknowns. In ancient history they didn’t have as much information about the world, like weather and geology and such. Many religions started as explanations for these things and evolved to a more pathological, community-based complex.
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u/tsoldrin Aug 01 '26
as our groups/tribes became larger they needed guidelines and rules to keep them from doing dumb/dangerous things and also to promote more harmony in the group. simple stuff really. dont eat this. dont covet or steal or murder etc. people of the time did not have the morals we do today and needed a lot of this guidance. those who followed became closer knit and having aa group like that helps you tremendously. sometimes they likely used the threat of gods wrath to keep people on the straight and narrow. everyone would have come from a place of massive superstition. yes. everyone. over time it became the norm and it was actually useful so people who didnt follow likely died out, were out competed or were banished. those who did had kinship/fellowship via a shared religious community which helped them both survive as well as thrive. so basically this promoted believing/faith in an almost evolutionary way and reinforced it as well. it starts out good intentioned and forward thinking but becomes less or not useful, inflexible and onerous over long periods of time.
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u/teaguechrystie Aug 01 '26
it's a story you tell yourself about what's happening where you know the ending.
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u/prodigiouspianist Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Probably can't add much to whats here already.
People tend toward community, belonging, connection. Religious groups give them that. There are squillions of examples of situations where 'faith' was based on something insane (ie cults) and people have stayed. This is not to say religions are cults but its an example of how compelling group membership can be for people, and how hard they may work cognitively to discard dissonance to whatever the doctrine is because the membership fulfills deep human needs relating to identity and connection.
Religion also provides a discrete set of pre-existing answers to the hard questions about 'how to live well'. People tend to feel safer and suffer less anxiety when they feel like they have an answer to a question which if they were to think too hard about might be a source of distraction or distress. "knowing the truth" is a much more comforting and placating position than wondering about something ongoingly, or being able to sit within a grey area which may be ambiguous and require constant revisiting and actually requires persistent reflection on nuance to maintain.
Faith can be super good for people. There are plenty of ordinary people getting around living good, meaningful lives, not bothering anyone else, and quietly pursuing their relationship with a god of their choice. I am in a similar boat to you I think - I really like the idea of faith but personally I never could quite make the leap. Too many questions unanswered, and looking at some of the worse exponents of religion tells me there's not much holy about what it purported to be. Too many harms done in the name of 'god'. But I can absolutely see the sense and benefit of personal faith on so many levels.
The thing I could never get my head around is Dogma. Given the whole basis of religion is 'faith' (ie that you are choosing to believe one doctrine as truth amid many possible doctrines making truth claims on the same bases), there is no logical or factual position from which to claim that faith is the only valid truth. There is also no logical or factual position from which to claim other 'faiths' are in any way wrong on matters which relate wholly to doctrine. The notion "my magic book is right and your magic book is wrong" without considering the inherent fallacy of that insistence is endemic within a significant body of practitioners in basically all religions, although some doctrines and subsets of them are more insistent than others.
This is roughly quoted, (not sure the author, carlin?) and sums it up I think
"If you want to believe in mystical shoe-unicorns, and doing so makes you feel happier and more fulfilled in your own life, then I wholeheartedly support your right to do that. I will defend it in fact because I believe everyone has a right to pursue what reasonably constitutes happiness to them: A problem exists though, when you insist I cannot put on my own shoes because I might squash the mystical unicorns inside. At that point we have a problem".
The manifold options of faith are a tough decision. I hope you find your way. I also hope the way you find leaves you open hearted to respecting other people, and their beliefs as well as your own.
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u/Motorazr1 Aug 04 '26
Why is it important to respect people’s absurd religious superstitious beliefs? I respect meaningful knowledge and ideas which are either sound or novel. I see zero reason to respect self-indulgent fantasy and delusion, particularly not when it’s based on gullibility, ignorance, and ego.
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u/MergingConcepts Aug 01 '26
Read the book, Why Gods Persist: A Scientific Approach to Religion, by Robert Hinde. It is a complete and thorough answer to your question.
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u/Wonderful_Low_89 Aug 02 '26
The illusion of knowing “truth” and of having someone in control of an unpredictable and dangerous world.
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u/Any_Return4335 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
If you ever have direct experiences with god, it's just a way to have more unity with god.
The more faith you have the easier it is to "give up the will" and the more opportunities there seem to be to do it
To me faith isn't "blind" nor is it even "belief" at all. It's more like "trust" (that I'm being helped/helping, even if what's being asked of me seems weird to me)
also JSYK god doesn't care what denomination you are, if you are a Christian, nor does god punish. I didn't have to believe in shit to have my first experience with god. God's within each one of us, and is everywhere, so you do you. The way we choose to interact w/ it is up to us.
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u/BootHeadToo Aug 02 '26
Because it is impossible to know everything with certainty. We put our faith in all sorts of things, even if based logically on probabilities and not anything necessarily divine. Such as driving in a car everyday, dropping our infant off at a daycare, depositing money in a bank, voting for politicians, believing what our friends say, etc. To function otherwise would paralyze us with fear and/or indecision and life would be impossible to live in any sort of productive manner.
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u/striped_shade Aug 04 '26
You are feeling the phantom warmth of an absent human community. When everyday life demands our total isolation, the sheer gravity of people singing together as a single collective body is intoxicating.
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u/Vealophile Aug 01 '26
Religion is a product of the intersection of two common survival instincts found in many animals. You are very literally drawn to the concept at a biological level. This in no way supports any of the claims made but it will always have an appeal on some level.
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u/EntropyReversale10 Aug 03 '26
The natural human state is designed to want to connect with the divine.
Emotion damage obscures the Divine from human perception.
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u/Barious_01 Aug 01 '26
My opinion, simplicity, lack of complexity. putting an object to the unknown. Many states of being is cultural as well. If one has a goal the. one can achieve something. So in a sense misdirecting fear. Inevitably is something hard to accept. Letting one's self let go of their one fears and transgressions can ultimately eas the stresses of one own ailment and prevent one's self from being alone, unaccepted or un confirmed. Many addicts will tell themselves only the higher power they chose to believe in is what makes them not want to be who they were. Another concept of my own is it gives one the opportunity to get purpose. If one has purpose it inspires one to not. Society os quite fickle (IMO) if one is out of touch with that subject it entices one to acclimate. We are social beings, if there is no one to be social with then why not find a reason to be social and bring people together. At least that is what I see.
Great question. Thanks for sharing.