The nature of religon

Originally Posted by Fyodor D.

That however doesn't explain WHY you think that people feel the need to put their hope in something. At least, I do not feel that there is a coherent connection. Let me paraphrase, to see if I get you correctly:

"Why must we put our hopes and faith in things"
"Because when humanity was young, many things happened to us which we had no control over"

Well, that is true. Everything used to be much more spiritual rather than scientific, and people believed that everything that happened, good or bad, was an act of God (or of some higher power). To bring that more up to date though, I think faith these days gives people hope in the sense that they feel they have someone to turn to no matter how bad things are (by praying to God it feels like someone is listening and cares about them). Religion seems to have a great influence still in third world countries; whenever we see news reports of the countries hit by say earthquakes, tsunamis or famine, there always seem to be a lot of people turning to God. I'll keep the politics of aid out of this, but apart from that, the only belief these people do have that they will survive is that God will come and rescue them. Without this belief, I think many of these people would give up hope.

However, in developed countries I agree that religion is quite archaic and seems to be more of a cause of conflict these days (religious extremists etc). I have always been atheist and have never believed in any higher form of existence such as a god, and I don't see any issue with this. Even people who call themselves religious aren't all following their holy book 100% any more (heard reports of Sunday church numbers falling for example); I think these people look for a balance between religion and society.

Jam it back in, in the dark.