I'm thinking that it could be because people can't accept the fact that we don't have answers for all the questions, so they turn to someone who can answer every single question they might have, regardless of how ridicilous the answer might be.

The year has nothing to do with it. Just like always, there is evil in the world, so people still find consolation in religion. From a sociological standpoint, religion has several functions: 1) It brings people together. 2) It brings people comfort and consolation. 3) It addresses "big" questions like "Why do we exist?" and "How should we live?" Thus, our inherent uncertainty and anxiety is reduced. 4) It establishes moral codes for the adherents that are at least in some ways similar to age-old universal ethics. Our needs aren't unlike our ancient ancestors, so religion won't go away.

This is a rather ignorant and offensive question, in my opinion, but I'll answer anyways. Like some of the above said, it brings people together, if gives us comfort and support, it gets us through the hard times, it gives us something to believe in. Here's a suggestion: Why don't you just let people believe what they want to believe, mind yourself, and don't worry about it? Its not of your concern what they believe in the first place. I just don't like the way that you asked your question. MY GOD IS NOT AN IMAGINARY FRIEND.

I would add a bit more to what others have written. Religion does answer questions that can't be answered by science. Science cannot deal with such questions as why we are here, what is the purpose of life, and what becomes of us after death. I take a lot of comfort from my religious beliefs concerning the afterlife because it lets me know that this mortal existence is not all there is. I know that life goes on beyond this existence and that the friendships and family relationships that I develop in this life can continue into eternity. Science can potentially explain all that there is to know about the physical universe, but it will never be able to grasp the more fundamental questions about our existence that religion deals with. As for those that blame religion for wars. As I have written numerous times, don't blame religion for the wars. Blame the men that pervert religion into an excuse to start wars. If these power hungry men did not have religion, then they would just find some other excuse to start wars. ************** "adt_33: Your first paragraph excellently explains a major reason why people are attracted to religion. I disagreed with the second paragraph, though. Aren't David, Samson, and Joshua considered great people, although they were warriors?" I could also add a number of other Biblical figures to the list that you gave, including Saul and Moses. However, I would say that in the case of these men, they are acting under the direction of prophets of God and, therefore, at the command of God. However, most religious wars are not instigated at the command of God. The lower level fighters may be lead to believe that they are acting in His name, but their leaders are just using religion to manipulating them. Since the vast majority of Christianity has denied the reality of revelation from God since the close of the Biblical period, they cannot truly claim to have been commanded of God to instigate any of the religious wars that they engaged in since that time. No offense intended to Muslims, but I don't accept Mohammed as a prophet, therefore, I don't accept any of the justifications for war that Muslims draw from the Koran as being of God either. I won't claim to know the heart of Mohammed, but I don't believe that it was for God that any of the sultans or other Islamic leaders really went to war against the Christian. In most, if not all of these cases it was more for power, land, and riches that they went to war. Religion was just one of the tools that these men used to gain the needed support of the masses to achieve their personal ambitions.

Many people have questions that science can't answer, at least not in a way that a particular person may understand (the average person is NOT Stephen Hawkings). Religion is based on faith, not understanding. It doesn't require as much brainpower to believe as it does to comprehend.

Because no matter how many years go by people are still scared. To scared to deal with death or defy their upbringing. No matter how much we've evolved a lot of people are still afraid.

Habit, fear, and the promise of a reward. Religious people are brought up to believe that letting go of their grip on religion will cause them to A) be punished, and B) not get the prize at the end. As any avid student of human behavior can tell you, this results in all but the most independent-minded/curious/naturally skeptical refusing to even look other possibilities in the eye, let alone work them out with an open mind long enough to introduce even the possibility of doubt.

Perhaps because there really IS a God. Hope You don't get offended, but is it possible that you could be wrong?

Wow, i'm surprised how much good input was given here, when it comes to the morals, I don't think we need religion to have morals, for example, USA is very religious country, almost everyone here believes in god, but there are so many murders and other bad thing going on, on other hand, europe is way more aethist, and there is way less murders, and they are more concerned with enviroment. Oh, and there was a lot more killings cause of religion than just the crusades, people have been persecuted for their beliefs every since the religion came about.

The year we live in has nothing to do with Man's fundamental needs. Believing in God isn't at odds with science. I once read of a top physicist who became a Christian BECAUSE of his knowledge of science, as he said that the chances of this earth forming by itself were nil. If you saw that a cake had been baked, you would know someone had baked it, that it hadn't just created itself. It is a basic scientific law that nothing comes from nothing, yet many people in this day and age seem to think we've advanced so much we can deny this law. We haven't and we can't. I believe that a lot of the sceptism about religion can be blamed on Evangelical Fundamentalists of all persuasions. I have done a lot of research on Fundamentalism and particularly the Christian Religious Right in America. But that isn't real religion - it's dangerous, deluded, distorted fanaticism, and gives a totally wrong idea of what religion means. Religion is simply belief in an all-powerful, all-loving God who created everything including us, but who, for some reason, is what a poet once called an 'absentee landlord' in this life. But I believe that there is an afterlife which will be INFINITELY better than this one, and this gives me great comfort. You don't have to be a church-going fanatic to be 'religious'. I have a close friend who is a singer/songwriter and he has written some sublimely melancholic songs about life in all its awfulness. He and I are both big fans of pessimistic (usually atheist) philosophers and authors such as Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Emile Cioran. But it doesn't stop either of us from believing in God. Yes, much of the time, we berate Him and call Him every name under the sun for the evils of this world (my friend even wrote a song called, 'One Day When God Begs My Forgiveness'!). But at others, we think of the incredible beauties in life - of the sea, the view from a mountain, snow, a wood in autumn, love, tears, compassion, our friendship. And we know these can't just have come from nothing. We will never find answers to the deepest questions in life. One thing is for sure, science CERTAINLY won't answer them. Okay, so it can tell us what electricity is, how far earth is from the sun, and yes, where rain and lightning come from. But what solace will any of this give to a dying person, or to one who is totally alone? Only 'religion' - ie. a belief in a gracious, loving and merciful God, can do that. Pathological pessimist that I am, I nevertheless believe in Saint Julian of Norwich's statement that, in the end, "All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well"