I’m always a bit wary of public opinion polls. If 95% of people polled said they didn’t believe in the existence of God, would that change whether or not he does in fact exist? Yet, there is often truth in the wisdom of crowds. This poll is a little different in that it reports on behavior – movement toward or away from faith – which can shed light on people’s needs and desires. People truly do feel the need to worship (I know I do), and there’s probably a good reason. C.S. Lewis, always putting it better than I could, says this in _Mere Christianity_:
“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Perhaps the facts alone seem unappealing precisely because they are cold and hard. In an editorial published in The New York Times, columnist Charles M. Blow discusses what he calls this “Defecting to Faith.” As Blow so wisely asserts, “We are more than cells, synapses and sex drives. We are amazing, mysterious creatures forever in search of something greater than ourselves.” Despite all its efforts, science cannot fill that longing for something greater.
Then why pray tell do so many stop at the threshold of belief? Would it not be wiser to heed the direction of the mystics who are more than willing to leave the problems of belief like so many veils upon the floor of the wedding chamber?
One of the things which bothers me is the creation of idols out of the insecurity of the ego. Is it a good thing to seek God for salvation, or is it a good thing to seek God for God alone? I am reminded of the wise words of Rabia-i-Basra
“O my Lord,” she prayed, “if I worship Thee from fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me thence, but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, then withhold not from me Thine Eternal Beauty.”
When a person seeks God for the sake of God alone, all things fall aside, beliefs as well, because in the Presence of God any form which is not set aside is an idol. This way allows the problems of belief and the vesting of the ego in its fears and hopes to be set aside. To seek for what is in itself, to follow to the source without vestment, that is the way for both scientist and seeker.

I agree with Albert. Perhalps the reason some children grow to seek religion is because they have not been given emotional, philosophical, scientific and spiritual tools to live in the world. Maybe it is because religion -or some views about it- allows people to be children forever, following the commands of a loving father who only wants was best for them. For others, it provides a community and the inherent suppport that comes with it, a sense of belonging to something considered by many as good and decent. For those who have suffered or still live in great suffering, it provides them with a hope, that such suffering is not in vain -it’s either being used by God for his secret purpose,or it will end when one mmets God in the other life.And there are those who come from the fear of punishment. Yet all the reasons above seem to have little to do with love or God.
There is a similar prayer form the Spanish mystic, Teresa of Avila, very similar tothat of Rabia-i-Basra. Teresa says that is not the fear of hell nor the promise of paradise which moves her to love God, but God.