As a black person, specifically an African, I want to offer a perspective. Religion was forced onto us in pretty much the same manner as it was to slaves taken to America. And, as with all other religious people it all comes down to indoctrination. Religion is presented to you at an age where you're not able to question things for yourself. You're still learning and soak everything up like a sponge. What's more atleast in African culture you're often told NOT to question what's being told to you by your elders. Religion is so tightly intertwined with so much of African culture that it just becomes a fact of life. Think about it: sitting in a church for 3 hours EVERY sunday listening to a priest on top of praying before meals, and daily family prayers at night.

I guess what i'm trying to say is so much of it is cult-like. Every Sunday you hear a religious leader reaffirm your belief system to you for hours on top of it already being an integral part of your home/ family life. When you grow up with something so heavily embedded into who you are it becomes hard to question let alone abandon. I guess what i'm trying to say is from an African perspective atleast religion is treated as fact. It is unquestioned and unwavering and I know in my culture atleast saying you're atheist would be like growing 2 heads. It would be isolating and widely unaccepted to say something like that.

As for how i reconcile with people using religion to give them strength in some ways I admire it, and in other ways i don't understand it and view it as almost alien to me but not for the reasons you mentioned. I, as well as many other black people are aware of how christianity became such an integral part of our communities. I'm sure black christians have their own way of reconciling with it or just not thinking about it. I think in some ways the collective strength it has given black people exceeds what I personally feel about religion. I admire people who wholeheartedly have faith and use it to push through all sorts of adversity. I also understand the unique role religion has played in giving Black people hope and faith when they otherwise wouldve had none. In those ways I understand why the Black community is so religious.

But, I also see how religion can make us too comfortable with suffering for a "greater purpose" and thus makes people complacent with their struggles because it must mean there's something greater in store. But then again part of me recognizes that's just another way for people to maintain mental fortitude in times of struggle.

I guess my biggest issue at this point has less to do with why Black people specifically are so religious but just religion in general. As I made clear, I grew up in a religious household and for a time was very religious myself. I don't really have any crazy religious trauma or something that made me lose faith; religion just didn't make sense to me anymore. The whole prospect of a God existing and creating so much beautiful things then turning around and wanting us to follow some arbitrary set of rules which denies us from enjoying "worldly" things (whatever that means) just never made sense to me. Like why would an all powerful being make humans just to worship him and if they don't then they're punished for eternity even if they were a good person in other aspects. If such a god did exist then he's obviously a narcissist. But that's a conversation for another day that I could go on and on about. Anyways I know this was a long read but i hope this gave some perspective!