Whether or not the religious doctrine makes sense or has anything to do with reality is irrelevant in term of the benefits that the institution of religion provides. That's why people can often fear and hate atheists. They don't know how they would cope without the perceived benefits that they receive from religion. So they have a powerful incentive to cling to their religious belief and ignore any cognitive dissonance that might arise from it.
-Drags out Hobby Horse again-
We all have a brain region called the prefontal cortex. This most recent evolutionary addition to our brain, when it is mature, acts like desktop does on our computers. It's a brake. Simply put, it lets us make choices, lets us choose our behaviors. The prefontal cortex does not mature in humans until the mid to late twenties, being later for males. That very nicely explains play and impulsive behavior in children and relatively young adults.
But the prefontal cortex never matures in many people. It continues to mature, become more dense, beginning to act as a brake on impulsive behavior throughout the life of the organism, but it never completes that development. As a result we are all, for the entirety of our lives, at least a little bit bipolar.
It's safe to observe that to this bipolar condition, particularly mania, and for those of us who have observed it personally, we owe our existence today. I believe that a few hundred thousand years ago all humans were bipolar. We were primarily impulsive, promiscuous, clever, inventors who slept little and died relatively young. A growing population as opposed to simple family groups very much selected against remaining primarily bipolar, which is where we are today.
Religion and belief in supernaturalism generally, and the behavior that accompanies it, is simply an undesirable legacy of our bipolar condition.
