Beats me. I told my parents I'm an atheist at age 13. Never believed in a god, heaven or hell.

Was always skeptical. To me, the Bible was just a book of stories or fables written by men. Like Grimm's Fairy Tales.

A security blanket

Religion provides simple answers for people who don't want to actually think.

It answers their questions,calms them gives them peace, offers them an after life,brings them to obedience, but the flipside to it is religion can cause problems, psychologically and other problems, I'm staying with being an atheist and believe in science to answer my questions and be skeptical and question things.

I think many humans like to feel a connection to the source of their creation, be it simple nature, their family ancestor line, or a made up god.

I don't think religion has to be all bad, but it's the kind of thing that can be used to manipulate its believers to enslave them rather than free them.

With our advances in science and astronomy, it's hard not to draw some sort of family history all the way back to the big bang, and get a thrill out of our own heart beats perhaps mimicking the echoes of the big bang still heard through the instruments the astronomers use.

I love feeling a connection to that cosmic orgasm that conceived our universe and made life possible for us. It gives a larger perspective of what we're doing here on earth, rather than the religions created really for only a small pocket of the middle east, yet oddly adapted world-wide.

I'd love to see a religion based on the cosmos, but then again, it's nice to just keep it to my self and feel the grandeur when I look at the night sky. Not everyone would see it as I do - they can make up their own.

Because most were told to believe in it from birth .Its not like they came up with this bright idea on their own. LOL

Before coming to my senses and becoming an atheist, I loved religion because my parents taught me to do so. That's the way I was raised. That's the way I was brainwashed. Now I am free from religious bondage, and am happier than ever.

No need to guess. Read the science:
[amazon.com]

It's a ticket to your wildest fantasy, and of course, a security blanket, to ease the fear of death.

Fear of Death. Need to be part of a community. Desire to control or be controlled.

Perhaps, early shamans could control the tribes by giving the impresssion that they had a connection to the unknown. This gave them power over people. Maybe the human race has not "grown out of that phase).

I guess every day is special for agnostics and atheists because we believe there probably isn't an afterlife.

Religion was created by humans to control humans. Religion is the security blanket for the weak minded.

Its very complex but I think the simplest way to explain it is that social groups need a way to force acceptance of shared values and adherence to social norms. Religion becomes a way of enforcing what the individual thinks and what he or she does. Religion threatens separation from your loved ones in the after life and in this life. It provides a great eye in the sky that sees all and records all so that you can't get away with infractions if you accept the superstition. The master plan is control of the individual by the group and religion has its brainwashing techniques down so well it just seems like willing acceptance.

Two main reasons -- the truly intense pressure of being a member of a cohesive group of true believers, and being afraid of not believing.

You would love a slice of cheese if since the moment you are basically born your parents, peeers, media and society in general are brainwashing you with "cheese is good, we exist because of cheese, cheese is the answer to everything and anything." This is done every fucking day of your existence, no big secret behind brainwashing.

The best explaination I have seen is our need for agency. That being that if there was a bush shaking we as primative man needed to decide if it was the wind or a loin. When applied to things that we could not understand we still needed to assign an agent or cause for a lack of explaination. The god concept is simply assigning agency. "God" or the god of the gaps was how we assigned agency or cause to that which we did not understand. In short it is simply a product of evolution.

Robert Heinlein said it best in his book, 'Time Enough for Love'. The character Lazarus Long says, "History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it."
He also said,"Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child!"
and, "The most preposterous notion that H sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if he does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history."

I think most people get comfort from their religion ,it gives them an absolution from their worries. Daily life can be painful requiring a myriad of decisions. Turning it over to God can be helpful.
I think if there was a God why should he concern himself with my issues he has bigger problems to solve. World peace,healing the sick and getting Trump out of office

Because most humans are ignorant fucks? Just a guess.

My two cents.
Religion is born from narcissism. It feeds that self-love, and anything that feeds self-love, is loved.
Anything that interferes with that which feeds the self-love, is hated and destroyed.

Some people say religion brought people together, and I believe it did; it brought a violent part of the tribe together and they abused or killed anyone who tried to take their self-love away: Leaving us a race descended from people who believed so hard they killed or enslaved those who were different
It's peace and order and culture, the Nazi way. If you're blond and blue eyed, the community accepts you. If not...

There are several theories as to why our ancestors mass emigrated repeatedly from our origins in Africa, to scatter across Asia and Europe. It wouldn't surprise me if it was due to one of the reasons people started emigrating to America. Religious intolerance. People loved their beliefs more than they loved their homes.
You can see the pathology in believers who love their beliefs more than their children. I have a couple of friends who have come out as either gay or atheist and their families want nothing to do with them.
The self-love must be fed.

All of this is of course contingent on the understanding that community, marriage, burial, music, song, charity, law and empathy are not religious constructs. (The religious leaders keep taking credit for them. It's not as if they have anything tangible to offer regarding their gods, so the secular accomplishments of people who do more than pray will have to do.)
You can have all of the above without religion. But there is only one way to feed this self-love.

Well, humans evolved in groups, or as "herd animals". This was the primary survival strategy for safety in a hostile world. When I say "humans" evolved, it was also the survival strategy for the various species that humans evolved from going way back, so gathering in groups is instinctual.

Today, our animal instihncts are still active, and most often expressed via what we call "emotions"... but that is a different although related tangent of discussion. The main point for the topic, of why humans are drawn into religion is that we, humans, as animals, feel safest when were belong to a group and have a sense of community. That instinctual need is fulfilled by most religions. It is the ONE positive thing which religions provide.

Now, the need to belong to a group is instinctual, and religious leaders will use that to manipulate people and to maintain power over them. People willingly give up their free will in order to belong to a group and satisfy their ancient instinctual need to belong.

So people don't really love religion so much as love the sense of belonging, which satisfies their instinctual need to belong and gives them a sense fo safety and well being.

Fear of the inevitability of death. And the desire for an 'after-life'.

We don't want to be the highest being probably so some create an imaginary friend and call it a higher being (God) and use it to explain anything that is not identifiably human caused.

Here is one reason I think people like to believe. It's like having an invisible super-power on your side. When you get in a tight situation, or someone close dies, you feel that there is a helper to keep you going. I think there are millions of alcoholics and drug addicts that actually reformed after deciding that they have accepted Christ as their savior. I am not sure why that works in so many cases, but it is one of the few things that does seem to work.
You know talented athletes will wear the same "lucky socks" for years without washing them because they believe the procedure does something for them. Of course, it's a superstition.
If I wear, say, a bracelet with a picture of my crippled son that reminds me to go to the gym and workout every day, should I really need that? Does it have meaning?