What percent of Christians claim belief because they fear the dark side of

[heidler1]

humanity and see this belief as the only hope for a more stable society? So for their kids sake they play along on the outside most of the time. If you watch people at all IMO you can't help but notice that on the slightest provocation the drop the act and behave no different than non believers. Also if a sexual interest pops into their life lust takes charge in a heart beat. Even the church leaders.

Then how about all of the people who go to church like Real Estate agents or politicians to persuade other members of the Church that they are honest and that they should represent them. What percent would that be? There should be a special place like Hell for them.

[wtmusic]

1. Fear of death is the source of all religious belief

and made the war in Iraq possible. No coincidence.

[Erika]

2. Death comes to all of us

Why fear it? I don't believe we have any more of a claim to an after life than does an earwig.

[Kindigger]

3. I told a rheumatologist something similar

two years ago, and was given the diagnosis "a hole in my soul". No kidding, it's on the paper. I turned him in to the AMA.

[Erika]

5. A hole in your soul?

Unbelieveable. People fear death to the point of hysteria.

Why not just accept it? I lay no claim on an after life. It's histrionics and fear that produce the thought of an afterlife. We are born, and we die. No different than anything else.

[lvx35]

4. religious experience is the source of much religious belief.

I was scared of death as an athiest, didn't make me believe anything spiritual.

[Az]

7. I don't really agree with that

I suspect that religious ideas such as souls and gods are more a result of the nature of our identity. Fear of death may be a hook that religions use to better enable their propogation. But the initial rise of them I suspect is a natural outcome of our minds attempting to make sense of the world.

[wtmusic]

8. good pt

"source" is the wrong word.

The source is more an innate inability to live without explanations for natural phenomena.

[greyl]

10. I think a natural outcome of rational human minds making sense

of the world falls closer to sustainable survival and a solid body of scientific knowledge rather than "being religious" as we know it today. Rational humanity has survived for 3 million years without the "benefit" of salvationist religion because that was the natural outcome.

"I suspect that religious ideas such as souls and gods are more a result of the nature of our identity." -bold mine

I read that as a statement made from within an extremely young and untested, yet cock-sure, culture. Nobody ever had an oceanic experience that led naturally into the formation of any of the few surviving salvationist religions.

I think the idea of an "other awareness" began with a much more primal and authentically ancient human experience than salvationist religion cares to acknowledge.

[OKDem08]

6. insurance agents capitalize on their associations as well n/t

[kwassa]

9. What percentage of Christians are non-believers, or hypocrites?

I'm not sure what your question is, but I am making my guess. It would be impossible to know that, wouldn't it? Is hypocrisy a function of Christianity, or a behavior of humanity in general?

On one hand you seem like someone who doesn't believe, on the other you are reserving places in Hell for certain church members. What are you asking?

[heidler1]

11. I'm an Atheist, but the hell thing was to show my disgust with certain

human ways of living. The questions that I asked were intended to show that religious participation is frequently a facade for many reasons. Something that happened that I find connected to this notion is while they were teaching a Gorilla sign language it was noted that Koko the Gorilla lied frequently sometimes for apparent reasons and sometimes there was no apparent reason.

[catbert836]

12. The reason people belive in an afterlife

They're terrified of death, because they're really just terrified of the unknown. I have no problem with dying. I'm in no hurry, but as the man on Dark Side of the Moon said: "We've all gotta go sometime, so what point is there to fear it?"