control, fear of dying, to have a reason why we're here
answer mine?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=A0WTZWMNzohLsnIAAhvsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20100226234631AAMGZPm
they did want it so they could control people... "villainy wears many masks, none so evil as the mask of virtue"
"god" is beyond words and though i wholeheartedly believe it exits everywhere since not all people concur.. i can only ever be sure it exists in my mind..
I would argue that people are born as neither atheist or theist. Both positions require belief and belief stems from knowledge. A new born child has no knowledge and therefore no beliefs.
For what it's worth, the earliest humans didn't invent religion. They created stories and gods to explain things they did not understand. Religion is the dogma that grew up around those stories and beliefs.
That's not exactly how it works. Even in ancient cultures in ancient times, before science of course, there was religion. Shamanism in Africa and the Olmec region, for example. I believe that there is something in human nature that causes the tendency towards religion. My theory is that humans strive to explain things. Human nature. So, while the science that explains ... well, everything, was still not perfected (is still not perfected) we came up with a temporary answer: religion. And everything spiraled down from there. Most of the top scientists are not religious people. We will never fully understand the universe, although I do believe that science can explain everything. It is just very hard to figure out the science, the laws of the universe. The how and why of everything.