Why do people have faith

Eventually hunter-gatherers set down roots in permanent settlements, which required even more prosocial behaviour management to alleviate the stresses of group living. These seeds became institutionalised throughout the Neolithic Revolution, which laid the groundwork for the so-called Axial Age to occur. The major ideas of this period — from Confucianism to Judaism and Ancient Greek philosophy — are still with us today. There are others, and perhaps some of these get the story more correct.

Human knowledge — especially about our past — is constantly evolving, and therefore our theories are constantly being confirmed, fine-tuned, or left behind. The emergence of art, architecture and writing brought new expressions of religious beliefs Credit: Getty Images. Better to leave it to science and rationality to help us forge our way ahead. But this perspective is shortsighted. For one thing, science itself is not neutral, and it has facilitated some of the worst modern phenomena, including eugenics, the atomic bomb, and drone warfare.

Should we also leave science behind because of its checkered history? Of course not. None of us should deny either the ugliness or nobility found in the deep history of religion. Instead, we should acquaint ourselves with that history, appreciate it where can, interrogate it where we ought, and, with both eyes open, trek on toward the future opening up before us.

Whatever that future ends up being, at the moment it looks like humans will be there, at least in some form. Religion is so bound up with everything we know about our species that it seems near impossible to imagine a future human without any religious sensibilities. Maybe it can be replaced by something better, but it cannot disappear.

One of the better somethings, for many people, seems to be religion sans doctrine or hierarchy. Evolutionary psychology may explain why "spiritual but non-religious" behaviours continue in modern society Credit: Getty Images. Some have referred to the SBNR trend as yet another example of DIY culture: practice whatever helps you achieve a sense of union with the transcendent.

Which means even those who participate in traditional religions may go about it non-traditionally. Without a doubt, these syncretistic trends attest to the processes of globalisation.

Paul Tillich, one of the most famous 20th Century theologians, developed a theology of correlation: the answers religion has to offer should correspond to the questions that a culture is asking.

If it fails at this endeavour, then it becomes irrelevant. Much of the loudest theology preached by the loudest practitioners of religion seems to have failed in precisely this way.

So many people have decided to take their questions elsewhere. But the questions remain. At the centre of religion, says Dunbar, is a mystical concern with belonging — a concern that predates and will outlive Homo sapiens , who will, in the end, be said to have occupied a narrow sliver of time and space in the great cosmic story of the universe. He lives in Delaware.

This is the second of a two-part special examining the evolutionary roots of religion. Join more than one million Future fans by liking us on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter or Instagram.

If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Deep Civilisation Religion. Share using Email. By Brandon Ambrosino 30th May Are spiritual beliefs an inevitable consequence of evolution? Esther is a good example of a woman whose faith made her courageous. She was in constant danger not because of what she was doing, but simply because of who she was — a Jew.

But it took courage to stay. Check out Esther 7 to see how she endured the schemes of her enemy and gained favor with the king to save her people. Have you ever met someone who seem unshakable? The coworker who takes a deep breath when the computer crashes instead of slamming her head on the desk.

The mom who manages to keep her calm as her kids' last minute requests pile up. We all want to persevere through the day without melting down or throwing a tantrum despite how we feel at times. Faith in God is what allows us to experience stability in the middle of instability. When life feels out of control, we take comfort in knowing that God is in control. This meant new food, new clothes, new language, new customs, and new everything. But even though Daniel was a hostage, he stayed true to what he knew about God.

Faith can do a lot of things in your life if you let it. It will grow you and allow you to do things you never thought yourself capable of. It will turn you into a dreamer who really believes that with God, all things are possible Matthew External Locus of Control and God. The average locus of control total was Optimism and Self-esteem.

A correlation was run on the 7-item self-esteem total and the 6-item optimism total to see what the relation was. There was a positive correlation with a significance level of. Faith Total and Importance of Faith. The mean of the composite faith score for those who put faith in one of the top three spots was The mean composite faith score for those who did not put faith in the top three was Figure 1.

Figure 2. Figure 3. Church Commitment and Faith Total. The mean for overall church attendance was 3. Current Relationship with God and Current Happiness. A significance of. A t-test was conducted comparing students and faculty at the Methodist affiliated college on the overall faith total. The mean for students was Another t-test was run comparing students from the Methodist affiliated college and the community college.

Results showed the mean for the students at the Methodist school to be The mean at the community college was Figure 5 Discussion. The first three hypotheses dealt with the individual factors and their relation to faith. The first hypothesis stated that those who have a higher faith total will also have a higher optimism total.

The results showed their was a positive correlation with a significance of. The researcher found two people who stated that they did not believe in God. Others listed a denomination of Christianity, yet their score for church attendance was really low. Self-esteem totals and faith totals had a correlation that was not significant. The correlation between locus of control and God was not significant. Another correlation was done to examine the significance between self-esteem totals and optimism totals.

The hypothesis was supported by a significance of. The fifth hypothesis of faith totals and ranking of faith was also found to be supported at a significance level of. This allows us to see that people who have a high sense of faith will value that more in their lives than others.

A t-test was run on the first three responses of the seven item ranking question. This had a significant value of. Of the numbers reported, 21 participants ranked faith as number 1 and 24 ranked it as number 7.

The other numbers also showed that faith was either very important or not at all important to participants. Another significant value was found between the relationship of commitment to attend church and faith totals. The original hypothesis stated that a person will have more of a commitment to attend church or campus ministries activities if they score higher on the total faith based section. After administering surveys, the researcher realized that there is no campus ministries program at the community college and most faculty at the Methodist college do not attend campus ministries events.

Church and faith totals were tested to find a correlation. A positive correlation was found showing that more people value going to church if they have a high sense of faith. Results were in the direction of the hypothesis, but they were not significant. A positive correlation of. This was an interesting finding in which more research might possibly be done in the future. The last two hypotheses dealt with the groups of people surveyed.

It was hypothesized that students would have a higher sense of faith than faculty members at the Methodist affiliated college. After the t-tests were run no significance was found between faith of faculty and students. The relationship was positive however resulting in a higher overall faith mean for students than faculty. A t-test was also run of college students to examine the different faith levels between the Methodist and community college.

The p value was not significant, however the Methodist college students did have a higher mean than the community college students.

In both tests results might have been different with a larger sample size. If this study were to be repeated, several aspects would need to be modified. First, the sample size should be significantly increased. The bigger the sample size, the more accurate the results. By increasing the sample size, the demographics would also increase.

This would allow for a more even sample of students to faculty and religious to non-religious people. In this study, the researcher surveyed 89 people, 54 Methodist college students, 35 community college students, and 9 faculty. The numbers in each group were far from even. It would have been more accurate to have had an equal number of each.

We are social creatures who interact and communicate with each other in a co-operative and supportive way. In doing so we inevitably have stronger attachments to some individuals more than others. We continue to rely on these attachments in later life, when falling in love and making friends, and can even form strong attachments to non-human animals and inanimate objects.

It is easy to see that these strong attachments could transfer to religious deities and their messengers. Our relationships depend on being able to predict how others will behave across situations and time. We can imagine what they would do or say. This ability — known as cognitive decoupling — originates in childhood through pretend play.