I don't believe in god. Honestly, I don't think I believe in anything beyond the power and determination of people, the need for peace and understanding, the power and powerlessness of love, and the harmony that is attainable on this planet. I am not an idealist, I am perhaps a realist. Mostly, though, I'm just a Danielle.
If you look at different religions, you'll notice themes : a power that people can communicate with, a reward for 'good' people and punishment for 'bad'. The idea that in the end, everything will be fair. As a children, we rely on our parents (or teachers, authorities, etc.) to make things fair - to ensure that anyone who is bad gets punished, and that no good deed goes unnoticed. We expect there to be rules, expectations, and a predictable formula for our lives.
Enter reality. Suddenly mom and dad can't make your wife listen to you, no one is stopping your boss from being an asshole, your daughter has cancer and no one is fixing it. Enter god, goddess, zeus - whatever you want to label it. Suddenly, there's a power you can tap into, someone who can, perhaps, fix your daughter's cancer. This being has given you rules to follow, and rules to your wife - now she needs to obey you. And, most importantly, you know that even though your asshole boss goes on living while your daughter dies, in the end everything will be fair, and he will burn forever while she frolics in a field.
Basically, we build religion to create justice where we see none. We want to believe that good will be rewarded, but good people keep dying and bad people get rich, and none of it seems fair. We crave the order and rules of our childhood, and so we find religious rules to follow. We want to know that someone else will manage the things we can't, or don't want to, and so we create in our minds someone who will take care of all of those things for us.
A good friend of mine (who is now a bible-thumping baptist, humorously enough) once said that God is just a lie people tell themselves to get through a lonely night. It entertains me that now, his words are more truthful to myself than to him.
