Sorry, if this topic has been raised hundreds of times before but i just find it so difficult to understand how some people can belive in religion. I understand the whole community group thing and how it can bring people together and give people hope, but i refuse to belive that some people are stupid enough to belive in some of the things the bible says such as creationism, heaven and hell as actual physical places and god as a person/thing looking down at us from above, when their is no solid evidence that such things exist or even have a possability of existing. Does anyone else feel the same way as me?? or am i just being a insensitive an uneducated person??

i am an atheist, but still this thread reeks of illogical thinking.

People have the fascinating ability to convince themselves of pretty much anything.
The earth is 6000 years old, the Phillies are due for a world series win, whatever it is. I'm not entirely sure why this is but otherwise intelligent people can really earnestly believe something with no real reason to do so. That doesn't really answer your question, but I guess this is what it boils down to.
-Not all people that believe these things are stupid
-A lot of people are in fact far dumber than you give them credit for and will believe whatever people tell them
-Some people were just raised that way and never bothered to question it
Those groups add up to a lot of people.

Well, it all begins with the belief that their text of choice has been written/divinely inspired by god. Once this belief is in place, what is actually written in the text is a moot point to many believers. It has been created by an all-perfect god, so whatever it says goes.

for most religious people, i can understand : they are mentally conditioned by their parents. such conditioning is hard to break.

though for people who were say, once atheist but are now theist, or convert religions, i really cant say

The Abrahamic religions are artifacts of the Piscean Age, which stressed reliance on authority--thus the mindset behind the Christian hymn "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so"--never mind that the Bible, while not completely without merit, is rife with contradictions, myth, and metaphor.

Add to this the fact that many people, maybe most, would prefer not to think for themselves--some evidence of this being that the average American reads fewer than ONE BOOK A YEAR. For more details on this idea, see the most excellent book by Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom.