If you believe in God, why?

Simple question, that I would like to see the answer you have to.

You were raised to believe, you have felt God, what?

I don't personally believe, but I can tell you why people might.

1) They were raised to believe it.
2) They are just afraid. Afraid of the unknown. Afraid of what happens after we die. God can answer all of these questions. It will put them at ease.

Main reason I've seen are being raised to believe it.

I also have a really cool physics teacher that was a Catholic when young, then became an Atheist for a while, and now believes in some sort of higher power after studying physics for a while. I thought that was interesting. So apparently awe at the universe can also be a reason.

I'm also not a believer. But I do know some other reasons as to why someone else might.
1: In most churches/Mosks/whatever there is a strong sense of community. Where you can meet a lot of different people. This is probably one of the weaker reasons as to why someone might convert. But it might play a role in it nonetheless.
2: They just wanna do those 27 virgins when they die. Obviously this only applies to Islam. There are a lot of people that convert because of this (Although they'd probably deny that themselves.).
3: The promise of heaven is probably a good one as well.

I do not hold any beliefs in a religion as I was never brought up to be.

Although there are some radical sides to religion I think at it's core it is a good thing, Like the posters above have said religion brings people/communities together in a way that is hard to match. But that doesn't mean every aspect of religion is good.

I have no real evidence or backing but I think that many people have used most humans intrinsic fear of death to gain money and power, which is obviously very corrupt. That doesn't mean religion at the core is bad, it's just that there are a lot of people that take advantage of it. Simply because of that I can't support

In most cases, people who were brought up by a family who going to church from a weekend to weekend basis, (like me),
that will usually happen. Though even in most cases, like some of the folk in my church, they only attend church to keep their parents happy.
(Until they find their higher calling such as a job or school.)
Why I say that, is because due to amount of prejudice and drama when a person leaves a church. One of my relatives did so and it went bad.

In my opinion, I can't really say anything on the matter. Even with me going to an actual church in all. I do believe, but when it comes to what I want to do, it usually counteracts anything I wish to do with my own life. It's quite confusing if I can say so myself....

There's also the constant religious references, buildings, people that you might encounter, with so many people talking about a god, this god's existence may just be something you take for granted to be true. Atheist here, by the way.

I was born and raised in a muslim country , so i had my share load of religious endoctrinment as well.
From my personal experience and judging from previous posts as well , I think some people, especially older generations take religion and religious matters too seriously. In my opinion , it should be more of a way of life as it teaches you some important values , than some worshiping fanaticism.

I mean , worshiping a god is all right , as it can help you reach peace of mind and  as long  as it's personal. But as we've seen many times in the past , some people will inevitably use religion to gain money and control over the masses, like tftp pointed out , and it even continues to these days (Saudi Arabia anyone?)

Several extremely disturbing dreams happened when I decided to stop going to church, so I went back.

8 months later

That amount of conincidences required for us to even exist is staggering from a physics standpoint. Some people take that as proof of a higher being, or creator. I personally don't believe in a god, but it really is amazing how many things happened to be in the right place, the right quantity, right time, and right conditions, all stretching back to the beginning of the universe.
Keep in mind it's not just down to probability. Many physical constants that dictate physical laws are also 'finely tuned'. As far as we know there's only one universe. Of course I'm a layman so it's not like I could go into much more detail, but you can look this stuff up for yourself if you're more interested.

6 days later

All that I can tell is that my parents see me as a failture since I am the first person in the family not believing in God.

In Italy, catholic religion has an enormously important role, I was raised as a god-fearing child, going to church every sunday, praying before eating ecc, but I don't think I've ever seriously belived in god. I personally think that God (intended as a 'religious god)is only a pretext to committ abuses, and people believe because it's easier to explain all that is unknow.

was plagued by nightmares when i was small
prayed that i'd never have nightmares again
haven't had a nightmare since

Most of you seem to believe that people who believed in god were raised to.
I was raised in an all atheist family and i believe in god but i promise you its not because im scared.

Sometimes i can feel him, it sounds wierd but i guess most people wouldn't understand. At least
than i know im safe.

Saikou wrote

was plagued by nightmares when i was small
prayed that i'd never have nightmares again
haven't had a nightmare since

In my case , the likelyhood of having nightmares seems to be directly related to the temperature of my room.

I believed until I hit my teenage years, which seems to be normal. But I lost all of my belief because I was plauged by depression and the such. I felt like that if God was real, that he wouldn't put me through misery. But I believed for that long because my mom pushed it pretty hard. I didn't even know people didn't believe for a while.