Why does religion exist?

Arthur C Clarke once said "It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." This quote seems to summarize the many aspects of religion in that all the aspects seem to point to one fact: Man created "God". Many of the considerations can be taken into account when attempting to define religion. Being that there are so many, including some that aren't very well understood, there will only be a few discussed here. These will include the intellectual aspects that go into every religion, the psychological factors of religion, and the sociological influences on religion. We'll take an in depth look at each factor and also my own opinion on what religion is.

It seems that religion exists as a belief system to help people explain events that would otherwise be unexplainable. In fact Kenneth Dick said in "Man, Father of the Gods" "All religions start as a mere imaginary explanation for something not understood, and that is all they are." Many, if not all religions do this. Christianity, Vikings, Greek, including every culture today. The Christians had for example the story of the "Tower of Babel" In Genesis to explain the division of languages. The Jews, Christians, and the Muslims as well as many others believe that God created the world. The only difference is that the Muslims believe it only took 6 days instead of the conventional (Or what has become conventional to us) seven days . The Vikings and the Greeks seem to have Gods for everything, The God of Thunder, God of Lightning, God of War, and Goddess of Love, All to explain what they could not. Also many Americans believe that the World Trade Center attacks happened because God was angry. All these examples point to the fact that the search for knowledge is important to religion as a whole.

While understanding the intellectual component of Religion as an attempt to explain the unexplainable is helpful, obviously there is more to Religion than just explanations. The sociological