They're just hypocrits

do you think most doctors really have a desire to better humanity or are they in it to better their standard of living? do you think actors really believe in their trade or do they act for the fame and fortune? do motivational speakers ever want to give up? do vegetarians ever cheat and eat/wear/use animal by products? has a non-believer cried out for God when their life is in danger? does hugh hefner sleep with three women at a time and yet refuse to 'dishonor his wedding vows' by divorcing his wife? it seems there's no limit to hypocrites and fakers all around

Yeah, I'm sure all the jihad and crusades and all the dying for their beliefs and stuff like that in the world is just people pretending.

From what I can see, many of today's regular or frequent churchgoers are there because it helps them fit into their neighborhood and assume a useful patina of righteousness.

I didn't feel sh*t. So I pretended and after that, I just stopped altogether.

I believe there are many people with real faith who are not part of organized religion. Most of the "religious" people I know use the church as a place to socialize.

If it wasn't pretend, then they wouldn't get so huffy about folks asking such salient questions. If their faith was strong, then we wouldn't be able to "persecute" them, now would we?

Another great question my friend. Tell ya what I think..those who openly tell you how religious they are and simultaneously are unkind, judgmental and critical of others are phonies. They don't have a clue because they are worse than Atheists..they band together under the cloak of God and Jesus and sometimes vilify those with whom they don't agree, saying that is what God or Jesus wants. What baloney. So..if you are kind, useful, helpful, non-judgmental and treat everyone with grace, dignity, respect and you happen to be religious, I believe you are because you live what you believe. Otherwise, you're a scam artist and I pay no attention to you at all! Happy Tuesday kdp! :) ((hugs))

Many people have real faith. They not only feel better after praying; things go better after praying. They live out their lives being very good people. You can see their soul in their faces. Faith and belief are why voodoo works for those who believe in it. True believers in voodoo will get sick and die when they have been cursed. (Voodoo, by the way, is a religion. Voodoo practitioners are fervent believers.)There are also those many people that you know who attend church regularly, participate in all church activities, put on a big show, then cut you off and flip you off on the way out of the parking lot. I don't think you can stereotype religious people any more than you can stereotype atheists.

More like the last part. Most people go through the day trying to fit in with everyone else so they won't be hated or despised. They want to feel like they belong to a bigger and better purpose, I suppose.

Not most but I do believe that some people just don't really get it. They use it as an excuse to feel like they are better than others I think. Or it just makes them feel like good people to go to a church. If they were really religious they would realize that going to a church has nothing to do with how good of a person you are.

Can't answer for others (I do wonder sometimes myself, especially in regards to the leaders (Ellen White, Joseph Smith, Charles Russell, Hubert Armstrong, Muhhammad, Paul "The Apostle", etc.) BUT I can say that during my stint with "religion" I definitely believed in what I followed and was a very serious christian compared to the majority out there. Now, thankfully I'm long done with religion and its nonsense!

religion is poison, just look at the infected and witness for yourselves.

I think that faith is such a broad term, but if you mean organized religion then yes. it is out of fear of the unknown, fear of disappointing ones family and peers, fear of change, fear of perhaps reality.

Try not believing in religion, its not that easy! Especially when your entire life, everyone around does / did. When your alone and scared, try not to believe, i did, its scary as shit, but once you dont believe, and truely dont believe, God will smile upon you and set you free. I never left God, i dont think he left me. I just left the man made BS.

I'm sad to say that most of the time you are right, but the reason why is that most of the "religious" folks don't really know God like He really can be known.

I believe most "religious" people WANT faith. But to HAVE faith may be their quest.

Faith is an elusive thing. I think most people 'of faith' sometimes have faith and sometimes have doubts and sometimes kind of coast. . There are probably people who don't really have faith so much as that it never occurs to them to doubt. . There are people who have faith all the time and are nearly consumed by it. . And there are opportunists who value what a church can give them. . Having said all that though, how can we differentiate between people who are pretending to themselves that they have faith and people who actually have faith? Is there a practical difference?

I definitely have faith, although it's not in any religion that I know of...why would I pretend that to myself?

It's all pretend self righteousness. They all assume everyone's a sinner so why not them as long as a few hours a week they can be a good kid and maybe sneak into heaven. It's all false nonsense and churches are the worse of them all. They raise vast sums of money to build huge cathedrals all over town and keep raking it in to self promote themselves. Now they build their houses to look like churches.. what self righteousness hooey is that? Oh look at me! I make more money than the Jones's and MY house looks like the "temple".. Well, I have to say if there really is a hell, which there isn't all these cathedral dwellers will certainly fry. It makes me almost hope it's real because i want to watch their faces when they decent down into hell with me.

I think the majority of people when questioned for census's and the like just write down a faith as an automatic response. It stops you getting bothered by those that do actually believe. I know when asked what denomination I was I always said christian even though I've never been to church and don't believe in god. Now I say atheist as I have realised that you can and it helps breakdown the fallacy that the church in the UK has a majority following. Which is very untrue these days.

i think it depends on the person, everyone is different

It is sensible to say that you shall know them by their fruits. This is based on actions, what they preach and their lifestyle.

I’m not sure what other people feel. Jesus could read hearts when he walked the earth, however as imperfect humans, we are unable to read hearts. In Matthew 5:3, Jesus said “happy are those conscious of their spiritual need”. This helps us to understand that we should concentrate on building our own faith and drawing closer to God. When we become distracted by what others are doing, we hinder our own spiritual progress. God and Jesus will judge the living and the dead, not us. 2 Timothy 4:1,2

"Faith" is to continue doing what Jesus asked,,,to preach [ advise people ] of the Kingdom...a new situation where wickedness will no longer exist... (Psalm 83:18) May people know that you, whose name is Jehovah, You alone are the Most High over all the earth. And as such, deserve obedience. So that you may know that I am Jehovah, The God of Israel, who is calling you by your name. (Ezekiel 20:38) But I will remove from you the rebels and those transgressing against me. For I will bring them out of the land of their foreign residence, but they will not enter the land of Israel; and you will have to know that I am Jehovah.

No

some are real and some are fakers

In the Christian faith, there are many who believe they are Christians, but are not. Many people believe that if you go to church and know that David defeated Goliath then you are a Christian. That is not a Christian, and they are the people who are pretending. Then there are true Christians who have not studied the Bible very much, never take time to pray and seldom go to church. While they may be true Christians, they don't seem to show the love of Jesus in their lives. Again, yes they are true Christians, but are really bad at living out their faith. Then there are the few that have committed their lives to Christ and their lives show it.

I look at any "opportunity for the masses to do wrong" and what do I see? The masses doing wrong, en masse, almost every time. (Very few exceptions.) I think most people - religious or not - are scoundrels who succumb to the slightest temptation at every opportunity. I think there are RELATIVELY few of us who take ALL of our religious principles seriously (not just the principles that happen to coincide with someone's personality). Most people, given the opportunity (by which I mean: seemingly no chance of society demanding consequences), will steal. Most people, given the opportunity, will fornicate. etc. Pick a popular sin. Most of the religious are just as quick to indulge - when no social consequences seem likely - than the non-religious. But...faith in the religion / deity / whatever? Yes. That's easy. Faith in the salvation offered by the religion? Yes. That's easy. Faith that "I'm better than most people. I'm not so bad that I'll be consigned to an unpleasant afterlife/next life". Yes. Very common.

I can tell you as a fact I have real faith I was baptized into the religion called Jehovah's witnesses I rebelled against that form of belief in my teenage years and I started hanging out with the atheists and with the satanists it wasn't long before I was a pretty serious drug user. And a little bit of money that I had very quickly flew out the window and up in smoke literally. So there's nobody out there can tell me that being an atheist or a Satanist does wonderful things for you it doesn't! I recovered my life and my sanity because some kind Christian people in a place called dunklin memorial camp in Okeechobee Florida gave me Grace and helped me to recover from my addiction. I've been clean from drugs and halfway responsible for the last 31 years. Do you want to see faith? I challenge any person out there or any group of persons get together as much money as you can possibly get together to go back to atheism and Satanism you can't get me to do it. I'm too old to go back to my troubles and that's Faith friend I've seen the real results I don't believe blindly what some man has told me I believe because I've had personal experience I've tested the water and I know what Waters is full of poop! And I know what water is safe to bathe in

i suppose they are being on Gods side to be sure of a ticket into the after life maybe ...or maybe better to be safe than sorry ..i really dont know .how others think........remember no one can be Perfect..many love the lord but are humans and will always sin and make mistakes ..even a bad thought is sinning so its hard for a human to be sin free

I know an awful lot of people who say "I'm Christian" the same way they say "I'm Irish" - just an identity handed to them by their parents. They don't practice the religion, they don't know much about it, and they don't seem to actually believe, but they're in the habit of answering questions that way. Of course Christians are happy to include that group when claiming majority status.

There are two terms faith and believe. I think there are very few people who have faith in God and rest just believe in God and they pretend that they have faith in God without knowing what is the true way of God. They do this because of attachment with their own culture. They people say in ego and attachment that only may religion is right all others are wrong.