I too have wondered about that. It's like how can republicans be on the wrong side of every issue !It makes me feel like every body else is just stupid !

I think a lot of it has to do with fear. Religion is very good at making people fearful, and then gives them a way to alleviate the fear. I'm not a very fearful person, so that part didn't really affect me.

I figured it out and all my friends haven't yet.

Maybe its the indoctrination they receive. In Judaism they pray Friday nites and Saturday mornings in a temple. I was forced to attend Sunday School for 10 years.Sometime in my teens I stopped going with my parents to Friday night services. I dropped out of the segregated youth group-my non-Jewish, non-white friends weren't accepted there. I refused to go to Hebrew school. I fought the indoctrination. Some kids didn't. Maybe I am smarter?

Buddyb a lot of them lie. I'm convinced that for a good chunk of them its one lie they will never give up. Peer pressure on a social scale.

Those people are so emotionally insecure that they need to be guided and bound by dogma which tells them what to do and provides them with a false sense of absolute certainty. hey have chosen to be addicted.

I realized at a very young age that most people believe what they were born into. If I was born in India I would probably be Hindi, In Saudi Arabia - Muslim. I liked mythology but was taught none of those Gods were real. Same for Egypt. TV told me American Indians were ignorant savages that needed to be converted. Likewise with Africans. And what about the Chinese and the Australian Aborigines? It seemed to me that you were supposed to believe what ever you were born into over space and time which made religion totally arbitrary. Like you, I never understood why others didn't recognize that.

I think it is a more complex range of factors that make some people comforted by the promise of an afterlife. There is tradition and peer pressure and subconscious influences, too.. And worship, prayer, churches and mosques can evoke strong emotional and even mystical experiences on us, which many people seek. But many people are terrified by mortality and need a sense of comfort or reassurance some religions provide their followers.

A lot of different factors at play. For many I believe it to be a bit of indoctrination due to being taught a certain way at a young age. Another is culture, many people just kind of "go with it" because it's in the family and so are they. Another can be fulfillment, believing and acting a certain way fulfills them, gives them a sense of purpose and balance to the universe. Aaaand there's also those who just use religion as a means to look down on others and help reinforce their own bigotries and baggage (but I try not to focus on them).

Great question! I believe there are several factors, including: external/internal influences such as family, friends, society, culture, interpretation, etc.