Originally Posted by
alice
i think, religion only exists because:
1. people don't know how to behave themselves. if everybody'd stick to the rules of common decency, moses wouldn't have had to come up with those commandmends. ("they won't listen to me, so i just tell them the LORD told me to tell 'em") and people needed to be kept in awe of punishment for law-breakers, too, else the whole scheme wouldn't have worked.
2. people just can't face the idea that death really means "game over". quite understandable, though, it really is scary to think about your body rotting away with absolutely no chance of doing anything about it.
There are a lot more reasons out there for Religious belief Alice than the ones provided by you. The number one reason till this day remains the quest for knowledge. That's right. No scientist or scientific school of thought can explain life and how it came to be. There are some theories floating around out there, like the Universe beginning with a giant explosion that after trillions of years developed into something as complex as life and consciousness, but until this day these remain nothing but theories.
Dare I say, human mind is too unevolved yet to grasp even very simple concepts such as the endlessness of space and time to even begin to wonder into phillosophical complexes such as life and the beginning of life. Disbelief of everything we see outside of our window evolving from a giant explosion still remains one of the most popular reasons for sustenance of Religious beliefs.
There are also other reasons such as:
Spitituality
Fate
Existance of good and evil
Existance of love
Our planet being the only known planet to sustain life
Differences between people and other animals
Complexities of the human mind
Don't forget, religious people make up more than half of the population of the world. We are talking about billions and billions of people. I don't think that all of these people are as silly as you desribed them to be.
Don't cry, don't regret and don't blame
Weak find the whip, willing find freedom
Towards the sun, carry your name
In warm hands you are given
Ask the wind for the way
Uncertainty's gone, your path will unravel
Accept all as it is and do not blame
God or the Devil
~Born to Live - Mavrik~