It is a maxim of the sales world that there is nothing that customers don't need, they simply don't know that they need it YET, it is the salespersons job to correct that misapprehension.

A god shaped hole in my heart. Was it fired by a god shaped gun? My heart only pumps blood. it has no other known function.

It is usually stated that "there is a god-shaped emptiness in every human heart that only god can fill". This causes the vulnerable to FEEL that emptiness which the deity at least temporarily seems to magically fill.

The reality is that there is this thing called the human condition for which there really is no "cure" as such. Anesthesia such as religion can seem to ease it to an extent, but the real cruelty of religion is that it so restricts a person's freedom of thought and experience that it hobbles them in terms of being at peace with themselves and with life. Every time the religious abstractions leak, it's because you're not doing it right, and you double back down on the anesthetic rather than things that would be of more lasting help: making peace with the fact of your mortality, understanding that life doesn't owe you anything, learning not to be attached to particular outcomes but to be flexible and open and adaptable. Religion actually works AGAINST all these pillars of self development, perpetuating the need for the anesthetic.

Who said that, then? Sure wasn’t Jeez!

Good analogy!

But isn't it phrased more like needing God is a given more than being told to need God?

Yes, and they also try to sell us, problems and benefits, hell and heaven, which we can not even verify exist until after we are dead. The ultimate sales pitch. Like trying to sell you services and added features for your house, (We will clean your drains and get rid of all smells, and fit a nice porch which adds great value.) with a promise that they will only be delivered, after you have sold the house and moved to another country.