Why do people seem to need religion? I would call that a question of the ages. Of course, if we ask anyone who is a believer, whether they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc., they may have a variety of answers to the question. Overall, I think it’s more of a tradition. Their parents, grandparents, and even before were that religious and it is simply something they were taught as small children to accept.
But we’re no longer in the bronze age, or even in the middle ages where people believed that their god(s) brought the rain for their crops, or blessed them with children. We don’t live in those times, and we know a bit more today than we did a thousand years ago about weather, and procreation. We also have eyes that tell us a lot more about not only the galaxy we reside in, but the universe as a whole. We don’t have all the answers, but we can say for sure what those stars in our night sky are and that, in the “Endtimes”, stars will not be falling to Earth (imagine a sun twice the size of our own, falling to Earth).
We’ve become more mature over time, and have a long way to go as a species, but progress, is well, progress. We have no need for gods to be able to explain the natural world for us. So why do we still have so many people on this planet that still believe? Out of some 7.5 billion humans on this planet, over 5.3 billion represent the 4 largest religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism). Have we made the progress we should have?
What is it that compels people to believe in something, no matter the religion, that they cannot explicitly prove to be true? Yes, I think that tradition has something to do with it, but it’s also about having a need to believe in something greater than ourselves. There’s a component of human ego that goes into it because we don’t want to believe that this life is it; We need to know that even when we leave this existence, we don’t end.
I actually understand this, even though I am aware that this life is the only one I will ever have, it’s easy to take on a belief that there is something after this life, for all of us. Death is not the end. Belieiving in Jesus, Mohammed, or any other prophets or gods allows us the delusion we require, even though none of them can explain anything about life.
There’s nothing in any religion that provides any answers to anything,If anything, it may provide a level of comfort for those that need to know that there’s something else awaiting them. That’s all.
Conservative Skeptic 
Religion is fantasy, superstition, & wishful thinking. People cling to it out of fear of the unkown, or death, or both. Mainly people cling to it so they are not stuck in depression about facing an indifferent reality. And there is no good reason to believe that the universe is anything but indifferent to our emotions or our existence for that matter.
For me, my life has been much clearer and more free without the chains of religion. Since I became an atheist a few years back, I’ve been able to accept reality on reality’s terms. I’ve been able to live in the here & now and enjoy the experience as it happens & not torture myself worrying about how it all began. Or clinging to childish fantasies out of fear I’ll go crazy if I believe in nothing.
People may ask ” But whats next after religion?”
I don’t know. I mean, whats next after cancer?
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As a child, I “needed” religion because I was told that I did by people I trusted. As I grew a little older and discovered that it made less and less sense, I convinced myself that I “needed” religion mostly because of what you said about tradition but also as a way to belong to the group (i.e., safety). Then I decided I “needed” religion because believing in it made me feel good. It really wasn’t any more complicated than that. I wanted to believe because it was comforting. Fortunately, I soon reached the point where I could no longer believe even though I wanted to. Comforting or not, it isn’t true.
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It’s not true, and I have read so many apologist works that it informs me more and more that these people are simply deluded. They want to say that we non-believers have no understanding, forgetting that most of us came from belief, and not overnight but through years of consideration. I don;t requore the comfort of religion. I know, in my way, that this is the only life and that there’s nothing after. I live this life the best I can, without any regrets. That;s all I can do.
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