Religion comes from an attempt to provide an answer for something unexplained at that moment. And to ease fears from thunderstorms to death.

Where did it come from? , who cares! Where is it going is much more interesting. Will it die out in the face of science and human knowledge?

I think it comes from the butt. No brain would come up with this shit. ?

IMHO I think it comes from the hearts of evil controling men.

Aliens brought religion as a way to control humans...lol

Egyptology

Mythology. Its fundamentally a form of story telling. The Abrahamic religions were very violent in every possible. Helped them a lot to spread.

Religion uses the fear of death to control people. The promise of a hereafter. And it builds from there.

If there is one single area religion has done the most damage, people's sexuality. I see that reflected in comments here, people who still suffer sexual taboos based on religious teashing... I feel sorry for them, and sometimes I just want to shout, "GET OVER IT."

While spirituality emerges spontaneously from the human body-mind synthesis, religion is almost always a social mechanism created by egotists who say they're enlightened, but really just want to exercise self-anointed authority over people - usually women.

Ignorance, people needed answers to questions like where did we come from

Man

I like Christopher Hitchens take on this. God didn't show up in China where they could write and keep a record of this, he turns up in the most god forsaken shit hole on earth full of illiterate people that nobody else gave a toss about.