Why religion is appealing (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, December 14, 2010, 12:56 (5093 days ago) @ xeno6696

MATT: Who will take care of me when my wife and (future) kids are gone? The typical structure in America is such that, if you are religion-less, you are going to have a tough time.-I sincerely hope that Nature won't play such a dirty trick on you, but your observation and the appalling news clip you alerted us to on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ww1AilSJ3U
only increase one's feeling that we live in a mad world. -I'd have thought religion was appealing for a wide variety of reasons. May I add a few suggestions (in no particular order):
1)	Fear of death
2)	Fear of isolation 
3)	Fear of purposelessness
4)	The need for hope and comfort in the face of suffering
5)	The need for love
6)	The need for authority
7)	The need to belong to a group (not quite the same as (2) because many people pray alone)
8)	The need for mysteries to be explained
9)	The power of stories
10)	The inability of science to explain fundamentals
11)	The possibility that there is more to existence than the material world as we know 
 it
12)	The possibility that religion may contain truth -But I haven't included our being "programmed" to be religious. The vast variety of beliefs suggests to me that it's a matter of culture not instinct, but who knows?