The God that didn't die

Despite the progress of science and the evidence that contradicts much of scripture, belief in god has not died out. It has diminished and the influence of religion is smaller than it used to be in many societies. However, the fact remains, that religion has continued. The reasons often cited for the continuation of religion in a scientific age are things such as indoctrination from an early age, lack of education, family and cultural pressure and fear of death.

The reason given for continued religious belief usually changes depending on the group of people being discussed. If it is a poor country, it is a lack of education and social pressure. If it is an advanced country with good education, it is indoctrination by family or fear of death.

The problem with these arguments is that it is always possible to find people who have every reason to be free of religious influence actively choose to be religious. There are many intelligent, well educated and otherwise rational people who fit no model of explanation. Many scientists whose works contradicted scripture continued to believe in god. It has often been assumed that this was a defensive attitude to avoid persecution in a more religious age. There are, however, many scientists today, who have no social pressure to profess belief in god, yet believe quite deeply that god is not a contradiction of their work. Many preachers of religion are also highly educated and whilst it would be easy to argue that their belief is bound up with self interest this would be unlikely to be true for all of them.

The question then remains: Why do intelligent people believe in god?