Because they did not come to this conclusion from common sense but from indoctrination which overrides logic

Why do otherwise rational people go crazy during contested divorces?

Because it's comforting. They want to believe they will see there loved ones again. I think it also has to do with not wanting to not exist.

It is the compartmentalization, cognitive dissonance, contorted logic and improbable conjecture things that they use to try and reconcile the contradictions and improbability of the things stated in their holy books.

Emotional needs come first. Most people aren't rational so much as they rationalize.

They're scared of death.

Religious thinking is generally based on the belief in the existence of supernatural forces in the world. By definition they are beyond natural, one can say paranormal. At best this can make you believe in miracles or unicorns, but more often than not it can induces deep paranoia (and quite often unconsciously). The accumulation of this unconscious paranoia eventually leads to a break down of rational thinking, as all explanations end up being attributed to paranormal causes.

A close look at history/ancient civilisations clearly reveals a pattern of how the belief in supernatural forces developed in a certain ancient human society as a core pillar of it's world view which in turn seems to have enabled it to spread in the same way that the Black Plague did throughout Europe in the 14th century or Capitalism in the 19th.

I think the simple answer is... brainwashing.

Rational people don't believe in a god. Loaded question....

Because some people will bend over backwards, physically and mentally, for anything that strokes their ego and gives them a light buzz.

Drug addicts can be intelligent, until the cravings eats their sanity.

I think it is so they have someone to take accountability for their shitty life. If something is going wrong, it's "God's plan". It would be fantastic to have someone looking out for you, to be planning your life successes, and making sure all the prayers paid off.

Just a thought...GOD could be an acronym for good orderly direction...otherwise I got nothing

That's easy. Humans are programmed genetically to follow their parents like imprinted ducklings. That's why kids are gullible enough to believe in Santa. In developmental states, let's us a parent tells a child, "don't swim in the river. There're aligators in there." The non-believers don't make it to adulthood to reproduce so the trait goes extinct. Those that carry it don't live on.

Everybody's doing it. Along with an almost complete lack of critical thinking in this country. I suspect that an atheist or agnostic would not get very far in politics nowadays.

At the heart of the debate lies—it seems to me—the fundamental belief, or lack thereof, in the dichotomy of what Stephen Jay Gould referred to as non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA). In such a worldview, science has its domain, while religion has its own separate space—the two don’t overlap. And while I do not subscribe to this point of view, it nevertheless allows—if not promotes—a ‘compartmentalization’ of the mind. And Gould may have been on to something here. Let us admit that, whether it be anti-vax'ers, the anti-GMO crowd, believers in UFOs, conspiracy theorists, those who truly believe in reincarnation or ghosts, or just the average, run-of-the-mill religionist, clearly the human brain is capable of holding both rational and irrational opinions simultaneously.

Fear

I don’t know thousands of years of social conditioning, a need to oblige ones parents, and in some cases to be able to comfortably work and succeed in an environment that heavily dominated by religious ideology.

Some people were indoctrinated as a child,while others or willing to deny reality and believe in God just because they want to believe. And I have seen others still yet give in to the scare tactics of religion. Take Evel Knievel for example, he converted to religion on his deathbed so he would not go to hell and suffer for all eternity with torment, Pain And his worst fears,but rather a lifetime of sin would be all forgotten and he would reap the benefits of heaven for all eternity.

Some reasons that people become Christians are social pressure and the expectations of others, personal crises or suffering, the teachings of parents, schools and other institutions, a -felt need for something to depend on, etc. But why people believe is in fact beside the point of whether what they believe is fact.

Conditioning, and because they want to. It’s the comforting aspect of sky daddies.

I think so many were raised in it and were expected to believe, when they question it as a child their questions are dismissed usually or rationalized away and the person becomes used to it

I have yet to figure that one out ! Illogical on all levels.

It really seems to boil down to wishful thinking.

Peer pressure has more to do with it than we'd ordinarily think.

I don't know.... I am a perfectionist by nature and trusted with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. It only took seeing the very first two contradictions in the bible to know that it couldn't have been written by a good god. Jesus dissipated immediately, it took a month or two to see that my religion was fake, and for the god belief to die...I have since found thousands of contradictions and many hundreds of places where god is doing evil, sinful, wicked things...There are people around me that KNOW these things are in the book....but believe it anyway. I find that very scary. I am convinced that we were evidently designed with different kinds of brains...