What makes a person convert to religious belief?

"all religion is true, none is literal - Joseph Cambell

The reason religion exists is because of mankind being fundamentally unaware of the inevidable. Death is the main reason for religion. Without death there would be no reason for religion. There is another part to the scenario as well. Fear will always play a role on your beliefs. Fear of death and not being accepted in your congregation for having a different view point. With fear the pastor, preacher or reverend can nowput their beliefs upon you. It won't matter if thier thoughts are unequivelant to your thoughts because if you don't believe them who are you to question God's will? ... God's plan? ... or the preachers sermon? If you don't agree you can go to hell there will be no scriptural hope for you. Where do you go when you die?

"No one ever converted to Christianity because they lost the argument."
-Phillip Yancey

Ed . . . inevidable? Does that mean you can't eat it?

so religion exists because mankind is fundamentally unaware of the "inevidable"?

I'll assume you meant inevitable. if mankind was unaware of the inevitable, death, then religion would not exist, because mankind would not be aware of the thing that they are afraid of.

i think what you mean is that mankind is unaware of what happens after death, and therefore they are afraid, and religion is used to explain/comfort and reduce fear.

Some people need emotional crutches in the face of the awareness of inevitable death and the very strong possibility that there may be no ultimate meaning/purpose. One's own death is hardly a comforting thought, eh? As long as they don't bother me with it, I don't have a problem. I ditched religion when I no longer needed emotional crutches to deal with the way things are.

Are eyeglasses a crutch?

Just tools to make up for a physical deficiency. I use them for reading.

desperate people sometimes do desperate things

and sometimes intelligent people get overwhelmed with the complexityof the Universe , and turn to god

and sometimes the simple people get overwhelmed with the complexity of the Universe , and turn to god

and sometimes those people who understand all the above see the truth

that the only true belief , is believing in Humanity and its growth

north

I found this pretty insightful: http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/the-psychology-of-belief-for-intellectual-heavyweights-only

The only true belief is of no belief, then again how could you experience belief without those who don't experiene it?

Good job playing the fool

I believe that the sun will rise tomorrow, is that a true belief?

What's the difference between a belief and an expectation.

I believe and expect the sun to rise, because it has been doing this on a regular schedule, just like old faithful.

To believe Jesus will return soon, based on a 200o year old book, interpreted and translated by man is different.

Both are predictions. I think the probability can be reasonably expressed.

You can use your own technique to determine your expectations.

I guess that would be up to you.