Religion was invented by man
I think religion was invented by man for at least three reasons, but there may be more.
First it was to provide us with answers to phenomenons that were at the time unexplainable. For example if there was thunder and lightning, that may have been a sign that Thor was angry or that some other thunder god clapped. But now we know based on science that thunder and lightning are just natural weather phenomenons that can be rationally explained. There are still these types of questions and religious people will answer that God is the answer, while the truth may be something different and we just don't know the answer at this point.
Another reason why religion might have been important from an evolutionary perspective is to help humans cope with the vanity and suffering of life. Life is mostly suffering with drops of fleeting pleasure here and there. But some religions provide hope for a future beyond this life in the afterlife where they get to meet their loved ones again and live in bliss for eternity. I think this hope helps humans to endure the suffering that life throws at them. But some gods would also provide blessings to people in this life, if they did x, y and z. This divine "lottery" could also give some people hope.
The third reason would be to control people. For example the shamans or priests used to wield a lot of power because they were the ones with a connection to the spirit world and could talk to or at least hear what the gods were saying. These people would then either rule society, or at least provide legitimacy to the rulers. Like for example some kings in Europe were blessed by the pope, and some would claim that they had a divine right to rule and this kept the masses in line. Basically the masses were less likely to rise up and demand rights and better living standards, if they were under the yoke of religion.
But once you discover that the evidence for any known God is insufficient to prove their existence, then there is a huge void left in terms of what the purpose of life really is. If you have sex or enjoy some good food, that will be physically enjoyable for a short while, but then it's back to the suffering. Suffering comes in many forms, it can be physical pain but even boredom is a form of suffering. And sometimes you can get numbed to the pleasures, like I used to enjoy gaming but now I am bored of all the games and cope with other things instead.
The future seems to belong to those people who can get more pleasure than suffering from life, and those who are able to endure suffering despite a lack of pleasure. These two groups are the elites of society who can live lives worthy of living, and deeply religious people who can endure suffering, and perhaps some secular masochists as well. We can see this in the birth rates of these groups. Elon Musk, one of the richest men on Earth has six children, Jeff Bezos has four, Warren Buffett has three and Bill Gates has three. The fertility rate for Mormon's is 3.4 children per woman and Muslims have around 3 children per woman. But atheists only have 1.6 children and agnostics even less at 1.3 children, this is well below the replacement rate of 2.1.
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