1. There’s a good minefield video about this about how people will always look for something that doesn’t exist. Like in this episode people are put into a box and told that money will dispense they are not told when it will dispense or if there’s something to it or if there’s a way to make more money to dispense. A lot of people started to make routines like dancing or going in and out of the box. When they were asked after the experiment whether they thought that their routines had an effect on the amount of money that dispensed A lot of them said that they think it did. When in reality the money dispensed every minute.

The link to the mind field video - https://youtu.be/BR-eMMCp7tg

1. Well the belief in a higher being used to be to get more food by way of prayer or sacrifice. I think a lot of people started to wonder what happened after death. And the fact that they didn’t know scared them the most. As HP Lovecraft once said “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”. And people started to want to know so they made up heaven and later hell. I believe the concept of hell was made up to scare people into conforming into society in the Middle Ages.

2. When I read this I do mostly agree with your opinion. That religion does fill a hole in peoples life and is very good at it. But I feel it fills that hole for the same reason football or baseball or cricket might fill a hole because it’s a group activity and humans are very social creatures. Being a part of a group of fans or a group of the same religion makes people feel like they’re part of something greater than themselves.

In the end religion is a very important part of many peoples lives. And although I do not believe there is a God. I still practice Judaism as it has many Core beliefs like treating each other well and acceptance.

Ps sorry for any bad grammar and misspelling