MBR

Anyone ever pondered what leads a person to belief. I guess I've always assumed that beliefs are meant to be reasonable. But watching people, it seems to me that beliefs are based more on emotional needs than reason or logic. Not solely for religion, but for anything. When reason fails to serve, emotion drives belief.

Take sexual desires for example. Shakespeare and romance novels are full of individuals that embrace irrational beliefs due to an emotional desire. Even in rejection, a person is usually recourceful enough to rationalize a conclusion that makes him feel it's the others loss...These rationalizations serve his emotional need to maintain his self esteem.

In the same way, reason fails an individuals desire to deal with the questions that religion attempts to address. And with a lack of reason or logic available to a person for whatever reason, the emotional need to know remains, and drives a person into mythology and faith.

It seems to me then that a person will choose rationalizations that serve emotional needs over reason or logic in order to arrive at belief that serves the emotions best.