why do christians believe in something  which has no empirical evidence?
436570
By the same token, why do Muslims, Hindus, Jews, ..... believe in something which has no empirical evidence?\n\nReligion has no affiliation with concrete proof, actually, it is quite the contrary. Most religions do not need to make secular sense since people want to believe in it in a spiritual way, and that's a choice they make.
432976
You are right. Inspite of the proofs--order in the universe, design in every living or non living things--some people choose not to believe. I really don't understand why. But I can only guess. Here are probable reasons:\n\n1. They were brainwashed into believing that big-bang theory. Just like putting metals into one big drum blowing them up with dynamite and presto you have a functioning car.\n\n2. These people just don't want to be governed by rules that don't fit their life styles.\n\n3. They just want to be different than the rest.\n\n   The Bible however gives us a perspective of their state of mind. "They say they are wise, but they are fools... Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds..." (Romans 1:22,28, Today's English Version )
954755
Proof is of no importance to believers, they accept without any serious research.For many the brain is a tool for evaluating input and computing probability, fact from fiction, myth from reality. For others it is a receptacle for receiving data via emotion, wishful thinking, and gullible  acceptance. Aided by social conditioning myths and legends become implanted, and alternatives ( logic, research, science etc, are shunned,and rejected in favour of belief. Myths feed the psyche of the believer, truth destroys myths, so alternative `truths` are adopted. The majority of bullshit (as you put it) comes from adherents of belief systems.
1119618
I'm an agnostic, but brought up a catholic.\n\nI never realiy read it much till I was much older. But it wasn't that book that did it for me. It''s the "no evidence" that does it for me.\nHowever, I hold, that just because there is none, that doesn't mean that god doesn't exist; just that there is no evidence. \n\nThis will never be known is this world. I'll risk that.
428248
It is not that people are divided into two camps, "those who believe, and those who don't".  In fact this is a belief structure on its own.  Many atheist have strong beliefs, they are just different from your own.  So maybe the better question to ask would be, "why do you believe something other than what I believe?"\n\nMost people who question Christianity do so because it is very easy not to believe in it.  Remember that the foundation of Christian beliefs is FAITH.  \n\nFaith is not easy for people who believe in science and reason.  Many of the beliefs of the Christian faith are total unreasonable.  For example, "The world was made in seven days".  This is not reasonable at all, but one needs faith to believe it.\n\nFor myself, I don't believe that Jesus was any more the son of god than you are.  Why? Because it is totally unreasonable.  But I do believe in God.  Although the God I believe in is likely nothing like the one you imagine.  My God is universal, and impossible to understand, we are too small and simple to understand a truth that grand.  My God is totally unreasonable also, but I don't attribute Human characteristics to him like many Christians do.  My God is everything, and everywhere.  And my God is inseparable from us.  We are, and it is us, and everything else.\n\nThe sad thing is that most Christians hope that Jesus will figure it all out for them.  All you have to do is believe in him, and that's it.  So is it really faith, or is it desperate hope for lost people?  I find Christians simplifying life so often it makes me wonder if they really KNOW Christ like they say they do.
371813
There are a lot of forces involved.\n\nOne is there is a lot of social pressure to believe.  Non believers are commonly shunned by family and friends.  Christianity tell them non believers are foolish and no good.  People growing up in an environment like this associate non belief with immorality and they don't want to consider themselves immoral.\n\nSecond children inherently believe what parent and other elders tell them - it's just human nature.  Religion takes advantage of this by indoctrinating children from birth.  By the time they are old enough to think for themselves, they have been in it too long to see it as the mythology it is.
708429
if they are Christian, then they don't
643808
Because they like to believe God doesn't exist, that way there is no judgement for their sin
1060177
Those who refuse to believe neither care if Christians are right or wrong OR what the implications may be.  If they are not convinced, they are not convinced.
235137
Most Christians don’t have the problem that you say they do. What Christians may find difficult to understand is not the atheist’s disbelieve in the Christian God, but the atheist’s disbelief in any sort of Divine Creator at all. I think pwacher’s answer is in line with the most typical Christian response. She wants to know how there can be existence of any sort without some divine source, or as many philosophers are more likely to say: some sort of metaphysical “ground of all Being” that must, in some way account for the origins of the physical universe as well as consciousness. Given some basic elements and natural laws, science can explain (in principle) the evolution of the physical universe. What science cannot explain is where these primordial elements and natural laws came from in the first place. Nor can science explain how physical matter gives rise to conscious experience (although a few die-hard materialists are still optimistic that science can, at least in principle, do this someday).\n\nMy own belief/faith: The metaphysical foundation of all Being is “Mindful” in some fundamental way, and we all share this same ground as the source of our own sense of Being - which each of us individually and without much serious thought interprets as our “self” or “soul”, but which is not really unique to us as individuals, but is actually shared by all of us. Spiritually intuitive people may sense the unitary and primordial nature of this metaphysical ground and project their own “sense of self” onto it in such a way that it appears to be “other” - aka, a personified God who is a CREATOR distinct from creation when in fact (in my view) the creation simply is the form of the creator (and thus not a collection of ontologically distinct essences insofar as the ultimate metaphysical roots are concerned).\n\nAnd by the way, “athesist” literally means “not theist” (just as “asymmetrical” means “not symmetrical”) and a “theist” is one who believes in a god of some sort. Thus the person above who says that “atheist” means “no belief” is not quite right. An atheist believes that there is no god. And I might as well add that an agnostic believes something too. The “a” in agnostic is “not” and the “gnostic” is “knowledge”, so the agnostic believes that he or she does not know whether or not there is a god, although agnosticism does not strictly have to apply only to religious questions. If someone asked me: “Do you believe that the Vikings will ever win a Superbowl?” I could say that I am agnostic on that matter. I simply don’t have a belief one way or the other. I simply don’t know.
559072
This problem come from a basic belief that there is no absolute truth.  If they don't believe there is anything that is absolutely right or wrong, then they feel they can make it up as they go along.
559048
I feel science because science is backed up by proofs and years of careful thought and study. What proof exsists that there was really a man named Jesus once. And if miracles happened at that time why don't they happen now? If there was somebody so great as Jesus why don't God send another one of his "sons" to Earth and help us. In the time of war, poverty, lies and other sins, it is where we need a god's guide but there is none why?!? Religion is major cause of wars among countries, people even disincriminate because of religion or race, why are these things happening when there is no definate proof that what we are fighting for really exists? WHAT IF IT DON'T?!? I haven't found a single person with proof that Adam and Eve really exsisted yet there is proof that evolution occured! I haven't found a single person with proof that there is life after death and that there is heaven or hell but there is proof that when a person dies his body is rotted by bacteria and finally dissovled into earth. Why is science always backed up by proofs yet we believe in something that has no proof whatsoever!?!?
380136
Actually, true Christians, who study the bible, not only can find logic, but scientific evidence in the Bible's teachings.\n\nFor instance, in the book of Leviticus, the Israelites were instructed to leave the camp and bury their excrement.  This was centuries before scientists truly found out what benefits proper sanitation brought.  They also were told to quarantine those who had leprosy, even before they knew what leprosy truly was or how it was spread.\n\nSecondly, the Bible gives scientific facts that were before their actually being proven in the scientific field.  Isa. 40:22 states that God dwells "above the circle of the Earth."  It wasn't until well past Jesus' life that scientists could agree that the earth was round, but under Godly inspration, such facts were put into writing.  Other examples in the Bible state that the Earth "Hangs above nothing" in space, and give an accurate description of even the water cycle, years and years before scientists even discovered it.\n\nLogic and reason are a solid basis for faith.  Hebrews 11:1 says that Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the EVIDENT DEMONSTRATIONS OF REALITIES though not beheld."  In other words, Faith is based on previous experiences known, but not beheld personally.  This is the whole reason Jesus performed miracles on earth.  To prove that in the future, he would be able to redo the same things.  These acts could help others to instill faith in him.\n\nThe Bible is not a science textbook, but is a book full of scientific examples and logical reasoning.
714695
Probably because it's an ancient idea based on very little evidence. If no one had ever told me that Santa Claus wasn't real, and I went around my office talking to people about how great Santa is, I would probably get mocked too. \nThe really sad question is why people find so much joy mocking the theory of evolution, which is actually founded on evidence. Why does faith based on no evidence have more value to certain people than rational thought which is based on a multitude of evidence?
1155512
Quote: "You do realize that not everything in the cosmos is logical, yes?"\n\nAbsolutely. But answering these questions with "God created such and such" goes no further in explaining them. In fact, it simply muddies the waters more by pretending to know the unknowable.\n\nQuote: "Do you think it's wise to arbitrarily mythologize every faith?"\n\nLet's face it, most religions have wrapped themselves in myth far more than we could ever do by offering up fables and patently ridiculous stories. These stories, by the way, suddenly ceased to happen around the same time that science became prominent enough to refute them. \n\nQuote: "The truth is there, but it's not always elegant, and it's not always what we wish it were."\n\nJust briefly, take a look at how science approaches a problem and then how religion does it? Do you see a difference? Science STUDIES a problem, it pursues it from different angles and attempts to understand through hueristic methods. In the end, science pursues truth. Religion simply assumes that it already knows.\n\nEdit: To ChrimsonCarrots below: The Bible has credentials? What credentials? These people were NOT historians with an eye on detail and accuracy. Gospel itself means "good news". The goal was to push the idea of Christianity into a positive light and to perpetuate it. If I remember correctly, the story of the crucifiction is told within four books of the bible, Mathew, Luke, Mark, and Paul, the earliest of which was written AT LEAST forty years AFTER the crucifiction. Are you suggestiing that this is reliable and accurate information?
73014
Consider yourself blessed that you are able to perceive such signs and find compassion for those who have yet to learn to do so. If you could prove something scientifically it would be a state of fact or otherwise it would be an opinion. The definition of a belief is that it cannot be proven. I propose you let those know about your religious experiances who want to listen to you about them. The others are not ready to do so and thus just let them be.
996630
Because people question what they don't understand, they trash it to make themselves feel big, and with that they think it will prove their believes to be true. \nOthers are afraid of it, what if it is true! and they are not one of those who believe in it!  \n\nThey shouldn't judge the Bible with what some Christian do, as we can judge all other people and what their's do.  Religion is a personal thing, and the Bible is a living book.  Think about it.