[WanderingKnight]

Religion is simply there because man is mortal and fears death. So we create mystical beings to replace the fear of oblivion.

Correction: "You" personally don't create those beings. The society you were born in creates them--different societies created different sorts of beings. But there is something in common amongst all religions throughout the world: There is always a class of people, a portion of society which holds the key to the utmost knowledge, the key to communicate with the gods. Such people were always found in a position of incredible power over their peers--and they are the ones who extend the religious traditions and provide you with these magical beings.

And they still exist today. If I travel to the inner provinces in my country, I can see hundreds of people gathering around local "healers" and "holy men", who take them in for their money, and with the power of autosuggestion they manipulate their followers in believing they actually hold some sort of mystical key missing in the common people.

Which is nothing but bullshit, of course.

And don't even get me started on the Catholic church and the temple to hypocrisy that is the Vatican.

Religion is actually liberating to the millions of followers, and as you get older, you see more people believing in it. It doesn't get any better. Why, as people get older, should they be more inclined to lean towards religion? The reason is simple: when you're young, it's easy to be atheist. But as you get older, the fear of oblivion far outweights anything so people tend to incorporate 'some' of the belief systems that they choose into their own psyche to deal with the fear of death.

I don't see how that invalidates my point. Yes, people are stupid, and many people get stupider when they get older (your brain can't think as clearly, etc), but my point is that religion as an institution (that is, whenever you have a person who supposedly holds more knowledge about the gods than the rest of the people) has always existed as a means of power. There's no hidden purpose behind it.

Is there anything wrong with this? Of course not.

There's nothing wrong with people believing in magical beings--the problem I have is with those taking advantage of the others' beliefs. Which is what religion has always been.