Reasons to Follow Religion
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Religion
Religious activities around the world Religion is an organized collection of belief systems , cultural systems , and world views that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values . [ note 1 ] Many religions have narratives , symbols , traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the Universe . From their ideas about the cosmos and human nature , they tend to derive morality , ethics , religious laws or a preferred lifestyle .16 Reasons
COLUMBUS, Ohio – People are not drawn to religion just because of a fear of death or any other single reason, according to a new comprehensive, psychological theory of religion. There are actually 16 basic human psychological needs that motivate people to seek meaning through religion, said Steven Reiss , author of the new theory and professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University. These basic human needs – which include honor, idealism, curiosity and acceptance – can explain why certain people are attracted to religion, why God images express psychologically opposite qualities, and the relationship between personality and religious experiences. Previous psychologists tried to explain religion in terms of just one or two overarching psychological needs.
One of the most interesting results to come out of this study was that the intellectually based reasons for belief of "good design" and "experience of God," which were in first and second place in the first question of Why do you believe in God?, dropped to sixth and third place for the second question of Why do you think other people believe in God? Taking their place as the two most common reasons other people believe in God were the emotionally based categories of "comforting" and "raised to believe." Why? One possible answer to this question is what psychologists call "biases in attributions." As pattern-seeking animals, we seek causes to which we can attribute our actions and the actions of others.
