Because religion was traditionally used to exert control over the masses. Do what we say or you will burn in hell for all eternity. Really easy to do when most people were illiterate and uneducated.

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago

It's more like it was an attempt to gain control over the unpredictable and arbitrary material world, by naming and idolizing gods to appease and appeal to, and then the social control and cohesion stuff developed from that: codifying and cleaving to the established social order from when things were "good" because surely that will make the gods keep things going good or return things to a state of plenty and stability.

Even now there's a lot of earnest fear and desperation mixed in with all the cynicism and self-serving hypocrisy and self-serving heresy of the various churches and religious orders. The world is bad, so people appeal to magic to deliver them better fortunes, they grasp for ways to make the magic favor them with ritual or asceticism or sacrifice or violence, and there's little practical distinction between a terrified fanatic earnestly enacting evil to win divine favor and a grifter cynically enacting evil to earn sweet grifterbucks for it.

I feel like there's a tendency among atheists to see all the self-interest and hypocrisy and heresy and fraud among organized religions and just say "look upon these liars seeking power! They spin such silly and dumb tales to control fools and twist them to their wicked ends!" when the truth is far more spontaneous and horrible than that, that genuine fanaticism can go hand in hand with hypocrisy and fraud. After all, no one lies better than someone who earnestly and wholeheartedly believes what they're saying.