Reasons Why People Cling To Religion

• Christopher Hitchens says "As long as people are afraid of death, the dark and each other there will be religion"
• It is the way you are brought up that keeps it going. Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). It certainly is true in my family. My grandmother became an SDA and pretty much everyone got in line or got drunk or crazy. Why don't Christians pop up ex nihilo in countries where they are in a minority? Why didn't I just suddenly become Jainist without every having heard of it? This certainly makes you wonder about the existence of a god. Why don't we just believe immediately and in detail? Everyone is born an atheist. We have to be taught about the "existence" of Jesus, Moses and Paul. This is why education is very important. Scientist are overwhelming atheist compared to non-scientist.
• Religion is a great way to control the crowds. "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful" - Lucius Annaeus Seneca. It is not for nothing the Republicans (i.e. the rich's base) are all God & Country.
• We are social creatures. Some people like to flock together with others and you can tell because they have lots of church socials and whatnot.
• Religion is the opium of the masses - Karl Marx. Not in that in dulls their response to life, but it associates real suffering in life to religious suffering. It muddies the water. I now would associate any pain in life to a cosmic struggle of good & evil, where Jesus is battling for me and Satan is trying to drag me to hell. My ego takes on grandiosity. When all I really need to do is just accept this simple pain as it is.