Original post by Good blokeYup. The vast majority of religious people are brought up by their parents in their parents' religion from birth. The power of indoctrination on the young mind is, especially among the uneducated, is incredible. This is why educated people have a better chance of escaping the tyranny of superstition.
You are probably aware that everybody, whatever their circumstance, whether they grew up in a religion or not, reaches a stage wherein they can make their own choice. Sometimes, they choose to leave it - and they didn't necessarily come from educated families. Sometimes the mere feel of indoctrination (if their parents go to extremes) may put them off. But very often, people who have grown up in atheist families will convert to a religion. It doesn't depend on whether their mind is closed, it depends on whether it is open.
Well, yes, there is plenty of evidence against the existence of gods. The knowledge that people have invented religions, that much of what is found in religious tracts is provably wrong (which calls into immediate question the rest) is just the starting point for a genuine unbiased examination of whether the existence of gods is likely.
The "knowledge"? You claim that you have this knowledge, yet there is no actual proof. How do you know it was "invented"? That's only from the human perspective. Plus, I cannot speak for other religions, but I do know that the Bible is found to be so accurate that historians often use it as a source of evidence. You will undoubtedly discover, should you take the time and effort to do so, that every single one of the prophesies in the Bible about a time that has already passed have come true. As a few examples, the rise of the Roman Empire was prophesied hundreds of years before it came about (you can check the dates), and, as one of Jesus' many prophesies, the Temple in Jerusalem collapsed. Is it the word "prophesy" which puts you off?
Human psychology and emotion primarily: the need to think there is an afterlife, a need for explanation for our existence, being misled or fooled, you name it, there are many reasons.
Why do we need to think there is an afterlife? Why do we need an explanation for our existence?
Strong motivation and drive to succeed, from whatever original motivation, even a false or mistaken one, makes a huge difference - obviously.
That's got to be one whopping big false drive there, to suddenly make school drop-outs sound incredibly educated (the fishermen), to persuade rich, affluent people to suddenly give all their wealth away, to convince random people to travel all across the world on what turn out to be very successful missions (and not just down to themselves), to fill previously self-centred people with the unexplainably strong desire to help the poor... sounds like something I might want to check out!
What about them? There have been charlatans and magicians throughout history. You can pay to see them mystify and amaze you in the name of entertainment anywhere. You can also pay to have a subset of them mislead you into thinking they have connections with deities and the afterlife; they are using the same tricks, just with different claims.
I'm sure people from three centuries ago would have been convinced that the technology today is magic. Why? Because, the way they see the world (and that must be right, mustn't it?), such things are simply, plainly, flatly impossible. Magic. Definitely.
Not as may as you seem to think and, anyway, add an enormously long period of time or a huge number of potential occurrences to the mix and a low probability event can become a near certainty.