To allow people to be stupid. If you cannot think or read well or if you are just incredibly insecure, not believing yourself, then religion fills the hole. God makes you great and the devil is why you fail. No where do you come into play with rational thought.
Yes that is it. Religion removes rational thought and yes allows a government to control us via their religion and the stupid sheep.

I think the first purpose of Religion was the first form of governmental control to be used on a population. When you instill the belief in a "god" you can then set down rules. Once the belief system is ingrained you can start to have more control over people.

I think that it's purpose is to give us purpose. I wrote a paper on that my senior year of high school and got an A with lots of + marks after. That's the best grade I ever got.

Religion has many functions, and the inability of anti-theistic approaches to offer a full complement of alternatives is one of the reasons religions still persist despite the Enlightenment. One of these functions is the deferment of the hope of Justice.

We live in a very unfair and unjust world. Society requires that the majority of its citizens conform to preset standards. Religion offers the hope (a false hope in my opinion) that the balance of injustice will be offset at a future time. That the rich do not in fact have an unfair advantage over the poor and oppressed. A judgment awaits all.

We know these ideas are crap, but what do we offer in their place? The non-theistic community should be at the forefront of establishing justice in the here and now. We all have a responsibility to be true humanists.

To provide a sense of cultural conformancy and cohesion, and to counteract fear of death and the loss of the superego.

I would guess; to maximize the effects of imagination. When life is harsh, which it often is, or just isn't giving us what we think we deserve; imagination is a refuge.
Like any players of D&D will tell you, it's more fun the more people who plays along with the fantasy. It feels more real the more people keep insisting it is. Some people can speak confidently and are payed - sometimes exorbitant sums - to strengthen the shared, oh so comforting, delusion where you are the hero(ine), beloved by mystical forces and all wishes will come true.

Seems obvious to me. No one who ever argued in favor of religion has failed to fall back on "wouldn't it be nice if it was true"; as if that was the whole point. As if belief is the act of picking whatever fantasy you want to be true and not what the evidence proves.

To provide a simple explanation for how, why and when.

Well my opinion religion does two thing attempts to answer question we don't have answer for and secondly to control the population.

The purpose of religion is pretty much the same as the purpose for Santa Claus. Parents tell their children about Santa Claus in order to induce them to be good, so as to get on Santa's "Nice" list, and avoid the "Naughty" list.

Religion is meant to scare people -- telling them they'll go to Hell unless they do what the church leader tells them. A good church leader (okay, that may be a contradiction in terms) will focus on ethics. However, many church leaders tell their followers to give them money -- making a scam out of the Jesus myth.

Control.

I think it is a pre-scientific method of making sense of the world around us. I don't believe the early founders of the world's religions had evil, or manipulative goals in mind. They were just trying to figure things out. Of course, religion has been subverted by those who do have evil intentions of control.

It herds sheeple.

The discipline you are trying to describe is called philosophy with strong emphasis on ethics. In science a PhD means Doctor in Philosophy. Philosophy and science has always been interlinked. Buddhism is considered atheist being more philosophy (self-aware) than religion. The Japanese are considered atheist because Shinto is focused on nature rather than a single deity.
When a supreme being emerges and is recognized as the head of a philosophical thinking, it becomes a religion, ceases to be objective hence it becomes a way to control the weak minded masses.

Answer = So you don't feel small!

The concept of “Gods” began as an attempt to explain the unexplainable. As beliefs deepened and became entrenched, kings and other elevated men leverage these “beliefs” to control the gullible

To delude, divide, confuse, and control.

Control.

It appears to me religion has served many purposes at different points in history, in diifferent cultures. It seems to have evolved as a mechanism for power, control, and in some cases, money.

To assign credit or blame to/for events that could not yet be explained by science that was commonly understood. Or that people choose to be willfully ignorant of.

Why is the sky blue? God made it that way.
Why? God works in mysterious ways

And then, of course, power and control.

It's sauve for the original authors.

Who knows? Religion came to be from an animal on this planet called a human being. Just knowing that gives me plenty reason to believe it's originality was self centered.

It's how the first athiests controlled the gullible.

Send me 10% of your income and I will tell you.. you just have to "Believe" and have "faith".. trust me.. ??

I sincerely think that, IF one were to search back into the deepest recesses of the 'evolution' of religions one would find that it all stemmed from a tribal member/s realising that instead of putting him/her/themselves in the way of constant and ever present danger/s whilst assisting his/her fellows to hunt for game as food, they formulated an idea of possessing the ability/s to converse with the ' Spirit World' thus being ' able' to ' receive' messages from the 'other side' as to where and which game animals, etc, would be and the easiest to kill, etc.
Thus assuring them of the devotion and reverence of their fellow tribe members, the tastiest piece of the catch as by way of being an OFFERING to both the spirits and them for their intervention, a status among their fellows that assured that they would live a safe and well fed, contented life, etc, etc., and this idea has continued on through the millenia to be what see around us to this day, i.e. nothing more than the earliest form of a SCAM perpetrated by some, or a few, indolent, unscrupulous, self-serving prehistoric Hunter-Gather/s who saw the opportunity and grabbed it with both hands.

Just about any organization attracts people who, for some reason, want to be in charge. It’s a big ego-boost I suppose, and it can be irritating. Yet those controlling people are useful. They exist for reasons. Some of them learn to moderate their egos and develop into true leaders.

It’s not just churches. The same phenomenon occurs in businesses, in government, and in social organizations. Maybe those controlling folks are eldest siblings. WAIT! That’s not very tactful. Disregard that.

I Am not in accord with the tenets of Christianity as presented by traditional churches, but I do believe that Christian Churches serve a valuable purpose to those who belong. As skado says, religion provides a means whereby people can learn to live fully and joyfully.

Much church dogma is pure rot IMO, and I have thrown it out. Like skado, I threw out the bath water but kept the baby. For me the baby is awareness, awe, appreciation, courage, and joy.