Why is religion so prolific?
Religion is extremely effective in garnering followers and maintaining them, in no other organization will you give donation and feel thankful for the organization to receive it. Not only that, no other organization has been able to influence the thoughts of so many people over so many centuries, except science and philosophy but scientific and philosophical groups are not as organized or centralized as religion is.
For all the positive points of religion such as the promotion of love among community members and helping to bring psychological healing to believers, and its many negative points such as the killing of non-believers (‘pagans’, ‘kafir’, atheists, witches) or those who opposed their beliefs for millennia till the rule of law in modern nations came into place, forceful conversion through wars (e.g. jihad and crusades), et cetera, religions are present everywhere in the world in some form.
Thus, we come to the question why religion is so prolific, and down below are listed in descending order according to their contribution towards the proliferation of religions.
People need spiritual support
People are not only the body, they are also the mind, just as the body needs a balanced diet and rest and exercise, the mind needs spiritual food, especially in times of hardship, we need something to believe in to persevere and get through them and religion provided that much earlier than therapists and the internet came into existence and it was almost free of cost.
People don’t like uncertainty and ignorance
People, or more accurately, our brains do not like not knowing all the answers, like not knowing where we’ll go after death, or whether that tyrant who tortured them would ever get into bad luck and suffering when we are incapable of inflicting it ourselves, and we do not like living in a chaotic world where we don’t know if what we are doing will be fruitful or a waste of time and resources, like a business or fighting against powerful enemies, but if you had a rulebook written by the omnipotent and omniscient being and He told you that if you believe in me and follow my commandments you are assured of success and victory, and that after death if you are a good boy/girl you’ll go to a place called heaven, and yes that tyrant will be sent to hell to burn for eternity, wouldn’t that give ancient people and modern people alike a lot of spiritual stability and bravery to go on and keep grinding.
Rulers and people at the top love obedient people
The reason that religions were so widespread was heavily influenced by rulers and other people at the top, like Emperor Constantine of Rome for Christianity, Muhammad for Islam, Emperor Wu of Han (ancient China) for Confucianism. The rulers allowed and even gave special privileges to religions (for example freedom from taxes, donations, legal status as the state religion, etc.) simply because people who believed in religion were, as a whole, more docile and obedient to their rulers (or as the current famous term “sheeple”), and you’ll find that in every religious book, obedience to the ruler is right next to obedience to God, the ruler is given the rights to rule by the divine, and if you disobey your ruler you go to hell, because the ruler is the representative of God on earth, the very concept of good and bad were codified and heaven and hell as rewards an punishments made the rule of the rulers have legitimate and strong ideological backing. Do not think lightly of the effect of these simple ideologies and dogmas, they can and did work to horrendous effectiveness that you simply can’t imagine unless you read history deeply, for example, ancient soldiers who went to wars, they all would have been very scared of death but if these illiterate and uninformed people were told that if you don’t obey you go to hell and if you fight well then after death you’ll go to Valhalla and drink with Odin and Thor and the sexy goddess of love, fertility and sex, Freya, and possibly live forever, I believe that would have alleviated many of their fears and possibly motivated many into doing brave acts so that after death they get the closest seat next to their goddess, and thus fight to their death and possibly win victory, which their feudal lords would be very happy to see.
Religion is taught even before children became adults or even literate
Religion is taught even before a person becomes an adult, and we all know that what we teach children, they will accept it as the truth and carry it on till adulthood and pass on to their children, except for a few who have the audacity and bravery to question what they were taught. Unfortunately, those who dare to question were killed either on a pike, or on a pyre, and in modern day ostracized from the community and seen as abnormal (the situation is getting better though), otherwise we might have had many more famous philosophers and scientists. I dare say that if people were exposed to religion when they became adults, the situation of religion in the world would be similar to its situation in China.
Religion gives us access to a community
Lastly, religion gives people access to a community. Humans are social animals and no man lives in an island, thus, community is a necessity for our health and survival, and religion provides that and more.
At the end I would like to state that this is an opinion piece and it is up to the reader to accept some or all of the points stated or deny said points.
