Why does religion exist?

Question

What is the origin (cause) of religious thought going back through the ages like the Aztec sun Gods, the Greek pantheon, druidic practices and before that in ancient cave paintings?

Why is it that in 200,000 years of human history there has always (to my admittedly incomplete knoweldge) been some form of religious practice evident?

Answer 1

Because a higher being is the easiest explanation of the world around. If you notice the more science progresses the more atheism is popular since religion only has one answer to every thing. Why wouldn't you think someone was controlling the world, in their world only things that moved other things were people or animals so it was logical people controlled the world and moved the heavens and earth.

Answer 2

Does Religion Exist

Answer 3

Because, the closer you come to being an entity that has been able to think out scenarios of cause and effect, and accurately deduce an outcome, you will also develop a great appreciation of what you do not know which could kill you. The remedy for this, is to regress into what solved our anxiety over things beyond our control in the past. When ever you were in distress as a baby, before you learned about object permanence, someone would pop into existence from out of no where, fix your problem, and then leave. If you think about it; the way a young baby views their parents is very similar to the way angels and God are described. They only appear in pivotal times when the peoples needed God, and to abstract the Jews from 'false gods', a stressor would be used to prompt them to reach out for a control beyond their grasp. A god who defied natural laws, seemingly, and favored the devoted believers while punishing the wicked. Other gods have different forms and functions to explain what was not yet fully understood or controlled by man. The central theme in all gods is that they care about the out come of humans even though there is no reason to do so. Humans do not NEED to exist, we just do and from cradle to grave, somewhere in the back of our heads we are scared shitless about the 70 years we may get on this earth. FEAR, that is what made god and religions, laws/rules. hospitals, the golden rule, school bullies, and a bunch of other things that we do that is not sex which is or second motivator. We never ask God to help us with that because who wants a parental figure watching you have sex? No one, unless you are a perv or grew up in an atypical family.

Answer 4

During 1800s, Anthropologists had a problem as to
how to classify human beings. One researcher
proposed the expression "intelligent animal".
After advanced studies on monkeys, it was dropped.
Another researcher proposed "tool using animal".
After observing some animals making wooden tools
and sharpening them with knife like stones, it was
dropped. Another researcher proposed "weapon using
animal". A decade ago, a rare film was shot by an
amateur in an African forest. One short monkey was
hit very badly by a big monkey. The short monkey
prepared a wooden knife using stones and hid it on
the top of a tree. After some days, when the big
monkey came to attack the short monkey, it ran up
to the tree for the weapon it has hid and killed
the big monkey. The one thing that the
anthropologists found with any group of human
beings, even if they did not have contacts with
the out side world for thousands of years, has
spirituality with some form of religion. So, man
is a "spiritual animal" if you want to call him
that way.

The Upanishads say that "Manush" (human) was so
named because he has "Manas" a mind higher than
that of the animals which realizes the divinity in
creation. It was present since the creation of
human beings. Religion is the characteristic
feature of most of the human beings. It was not
attained through reasoning using mind. Illiterate
tribes located in inaccessible forests also have
religion. It is as eternal and and as unchanging
as the Almighty. Disbelief by a few will not
affect it.

"The percentage of atheists in the world is less
than 5%"

http://www.positiveatheism.org/india/s1990c48a.htm

"Atheists are all scientists" ?

http://www.non-religious.com/statistics.html

Religion is not a blind following. It is a sub-consciously driven
group ritual. It calms the 'collective unconscious' mind. The
religious culture brings unity and belongedness among the followers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious

" Are Atheists More Depressed than Religious People?

In recent years, the view that religious belief and
participation in religious acts of worship has a positive
effect upon the well-being of man..."

http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php

"Is a Belief in God Beneficial? Or, What's an Atheist to Do?

1) Religious attendance is correlated with longevity.
2) Religious belief has been associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms.
3) Religious beliefs may help with addiction.
4) Religious attendance is correlated with lower blood pressure.

http://jewishatheist.blogspot.com/2006/01/is-belief-in-god-beneficial-or-whats.html

Answer 5

If religion, that is to say the existence of a personal God, is a fabrication of the human mind then a logical question might be: Why does religion exist at all ?

Answer 6

I came upon a question in the Science forum Astronomy and Space. This person asked, "Why am I sad?" and in the details were written something about feeling overwhelmed as to why they are here and the Universe is too big for them to grasp and was asking why it was there...

When you think about it, Science cannot answer nor comfort that person. They just sit there speechless. And the people who answered the question suggested he seek spiritual guidance because he just seemed like he was on thin ice. Sometimes we just need a higher being to turn to, even if we don't believe in it. The Universe is a higher being itself, it's been here longer than us. We can't justify everything with science, it's too much.

Answer 7

The original "religions" or worshipping was based around elements, fire, water etc...

Usually, religion is practiced in order to endow the practitioner with a sense of purpose and value in the scheme of the universe, or simple because they need something to believe, they need there to be something more.

Some people in history developed religion to give themselves power over the people.

And there is only evidence to about 9000 years of human civilization.

Answer 8

Religion was the early/primitive form of philosophy that satisfied a need to explain things. Now we have science, but somehow religion held on. I honestly don't understand why, but I think it has to do with a fear of death, control and the very slight possibility of a 'god center' in the brain.

It's interesting how early man all over the world and with no contact found such different things to worship.

Answer 9

because its the way the government wants to control you, god doesn't exist (my opinion), neither do ghosts or hell or heaven because first of all, did someone die and saw heaven/hell and came back alive and told everyone about that crap..no the people are gonna think he/she was probably crazy and kill him. The government created a "system" where people can built trust on and we don't even know the reality it self when we are thinking does god really exist?

Answer 10

Because humans want it.
Nearly all are born with a yearning for some kind of spirituality. The responses are widely varied, but it seems that nearly everyone "worships" (structures his or her life around) something...whether that is god/goddess, quantum physics, corvettes, sex, Yahoo, or chocolate...
I suspect a genetic component.