"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." - Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion

I hope it is ok to post this link, but seems apt.

ALL the "gods" I am aware of are demanding & capricious! And yet, snowed under with abject worshippers from the beginning of time.
My theory: Life itself is pretty random...the weather/natural disasters, illness, murder, etc all strike both the good person and the foul one. This is easily observable and not explainable unless your gawd "has his reasons" and maybe, just maybe, if you placate him/her/it sufficiently, you & yours will be safe. ("saved" ).

He's all those things because he's an anthropomorphic 'God'. The humans who created 'Him' look upon this 'God' as an all powerful 'King' who is way up there in the sky looking down and watching. Being anthropomorphic ,'He' is a reflection of themselves. This doesn't quite answer your question but this is my little rant. for the day.

lol, what's worse: He created us for the sole purpose of giving him praise. Supposedly, when we die, we get the "honor" of being able to sing his praised for all eternity, or something. That's what they taught me in church.
Lol, God has pretty low self-esteem, huh?

Because after 2000 years of forced allegiance, it's expected of us.

That a few people thought that I was talking about Trump shows what a very man made and petty god the Christian god is. : )

Because people have the uncanny ability to ignore all that and focus only on the bits they like about the tyrant in the sky. And, some like the vengeful god as they think they will be spared and those they dislike will "get what they deserve."

People just needed a supreme something to believe in. The after life sounded pretty good.

LOL... When I read the first part, Io thought you wee talking about Donald Trump, but it was only about god.

Humanity is masochic by nature?

Who else is going to promise you life after death? Sitting on a cloud with a halo and a harp, and reunited with all of your loved ones who died before you. People cling to the hope of that. They cling to the belief that they can pray their way to better fortune. God is simply a means to an end. Believing gives people the hope that they crave.

Fear.