Why Religion and Spirituality Exist

This thought occurred to me, and was strong enough to convince me to make this blog.

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Why does religion exist, and why does it exist so universally? Why do people hold on to so many ideas of their spirituality so strongly?

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Religion exists because it covers up nonexistence. Our minds are set up that we cannot easily imagine nothing, just as we cannot easily imagine infinity.

Without religious beliefs, what happens to us after we die? We cease to exist. However, the average human cannot imagine themselves not existing. When asked, they may imagine an eternity of blackness, or an eternity without thought, but even then, that implies consciousness of some form.

Just as when you sleep, time seems to pass instantaneously, without consciousness to mark it's passing. But we can only imagine that state of unconsciousness once we wake, and have some second frame of reference to make sense of things. To say an infinite amount of time would seem as no time at all, forever, doesn't make sense in our minds.

So, naturally, people imagine a "waking". They imagine an afterlife. A life that must exist after our first frame of reference, to make sense of that previous conundrum.

It's the same, then, for God. God is the thought that we use to fill up all the void in the world. What existed before the universe? Nothing. Therefore, we imagine a God to fill the space. What will exist once the universe ends, if it ever does? Nothing, therefore, God.

And for souls as well. What are we when we cease to be? Nothing, therefore, we imagine that we must have souls, to continue our existence.

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