Why do people believe in God?

At a certain point when I was about 18 or 19 I imagined life without God and realized I would not choose to be alive in such a world. My wife (even though she is 7 years younger and we didn't met until she was 39 had a similar experience where she realized she would not choose to live in a world without God.

So, if you are wondering why people believe in God mostly it is because if they didn't believe in God they likely wouldn't choose to be alive.

So, if you don't believe in God, for most people Believing in God is an alternative to Suicide.

So, it really doesn't matter on one level whether God exists or not because if they didn't believe in God they wouldn't choose to live at all.

However, then I saw hundreds of thousands of Tibetan Buddhists in Bodhgaya, India and when I saw them the same wonderful thing about people who believe in God was there: Kindness and Compassion.

And I felt at peace around these people too even though only 25% of them even believe in God.

Worldwide only 25% of Buddhists believe in God.

So, I had discovered the essence of civilization itself: Compassion and kindness to others throughout the whole universe in the past, present and future. This was in 1985 in December and I was 37 then.

So, do you HAVE to believe in God to have Peace?

Maybe not.

But I believe in God because otherwise I wouldn't have survived until age 15 because I almost died of whooping cough at age 2 and had blunt trauma childhood epilepsy from ages 10 to 15. So, if I hadn't believed in God at least until I was 15 I would already be dead back then.

So, if you are trying to understand people who believe in God if you are one of the 10% who don't in the U.S. then I hope this is helpful.