There are many unconscious reasons people believe in religious faiths. While many people find comfort and joy in their religious practices because of their moral teachings, there are other reasons they're drawn to their faith as well. For many, faith was a part of their upbringing, and they want to continue their family's traditions. Faith plays an important role in culture for many reasons.

01 of 07 Indoctrination into Religion Robert Nicholas / Getty Images The high and consistent degree of religious concentrations suggests that people believe their religion because that's the one they were indoctrinated into and which is consistently reinforced around them. People acquire a religion before critical thinking skills, and that religion is promoted without most people noticing.

02 of 07 Indoctrination into Anti-Atheist Bigotry Kevin Dodge / Getty Images If you're constantly being told that people who don't believe in your god are evil, immoral, and a threat to the stable social order, then you would never dream of dropping your theistic religion. Who wants to be immoral or be regarded by the rest of society as immoral? This is very much what atheists face, especially in America, and it's hard not to see the constant indoctrination into anti-atheist bigotry as a reason why people stick to their religions. Children learn in public schools that America is a nation for people who believe in God and this message is reinforced throughout their lives by preachers, politicians, and community leaders of all sorts.

03 of 07 Peer and Family Pressure skynesher / Getty Images Religion can be enormously valuable to families and communities, creating a tremendous amount of pressure to conform to religious expectations. People who step outside those expectations are not merely choosing a different way of life, but can be perceived as rejecting one of the most important bonds which keep a family or community together. Even if this is never communicated in so many words, people do learn that certain ideas, ideologies, and practices should be treated as vital to communal bonds and should therefore not be questioned. The role of peer pressure and familial pressure in maintaining at least a veneer of religiosity for many people cannot be denied.

04 of 07 Fear of Death arturogi / Getty Images Many religious theists try to argue atheists into believing in a god through the fear of what will happen after death, either going to hell or just ceasing to exist. This arguably reveals something very important about the believers themselves: they, too, must fear death as the cessation of existence and believe not because there are any good reasons to think there is an afterlife, but rather out of wishful thinking. People don't want to believe that physical death is the end of all experiences, emotions, and thoughts, so they insist on believing that somehow their "mind" will continue to exist without any physical brain in an eternity of sustained bliss, or even will be reincarnated in a new form.

05 of 07 Wishful Thinking Yuri_Arcurs / Getty Images The wish that physical death isn't the end of life probably isn't the only example of wishful thinking behind religious and theistic belief. There are some other ways in which people profess beliefs that appear to be more about what they wish were true than what they can support through good evidence and logic.

06 of 07 Fear of Freedom and Responsibility Carl Smith / Getty Images One of the most disturbing aspects of many people's religious beliefs is the manner in which these beliefs make it possible for believers to avoid taking personal responsibility for what's going on. They don't have to be responsible for ensuring that justice is done because God will provide that. They don't have to be responsible for solving environmental problems because God will do that. They don't have to be accountable for developing strong moral rules because God has done that. They don't have to be responsible for developing sound arguments in defense of their positions because God has done that. Believers deny their freedom because freedom means responsibility and responsibility means that if we fail, no one will rescue us.