Spirituality as a consequence of intellect

To my knowledge, there isn't a single culture within humanity that hasn't created some kind of deity to explain things that could / can not be understood.

Why is this?

In my opinion, the genetic intelligence our species developed over the years is the reason for ALL religion, EVER developed, by man. We are animals, when it comes down to it, however, our intelligence and ability to manipulate our environment sets us apart from the rest of our animal brethren. Intelligence is the ability to learn and understand cause and effect, and it is this understanding that lead us to create our deities.

I propose that as our species became capable of understanding cause and effect, we began to apply this understanding to EVERY G'DAMN THING we experienced throughout our lives. EVERYTHING we experienced had to have a cause, and when "we" couldn't identify that cause, "we" just made some shit up that "seemed" to make sense. Time passes, and people start to debate the various bullshit "causes" proposed for the witnessed "effects" observed in our environment, and the greater the "effect", the greater the need for a powerful "cause". The next thing you know, some asshole starts talking about deities, and BOOM!.....religion.

In our ignorant state of being, we assume that since man can influence his environment and "cause" some fairly significant "effects", than there must be some other intelligent being, or beings, doing the same thing. After all, that SEEMS logical when you don't have an understanding of chemistry, physics, meteorology, astronomy, and every other science that has based understanding on empirical and testable evidence.

In other words, I believe it is our intellect that directly lead to the stupidity of religious belief. We were smart enough to understand cause and effect, but too stupid to realize the actual cause and admit it when we haven't got a fucking clue.

Hell, I'd go as far to say that we NEED that cause...be it bullshit or not.

Maybe because there is a Deity which created reality.. some kind of spirit.. which are misinterpreted and misunderstood among societies... The all powerfull source/force which runs all dimensions.. From a sub-atomic particle til the universe.. the 'so above and so below' kinda thing..
However, I don't think we're special as humans, let alone we're intelligent.. I mean, look the world we're living in, the 'manipulated environment' we got.. it's a trash! Don't bother me the fact that sumerians say humans were created as a slave specie to mine gold from the so called 'Gods' 16.000 years ago.. I believe it, its then my religion

Wilksey,

That kinda reminds me of a time in our history when it was widely believed that the earth was the center of everything. We were not yet aware that the earth revolves around the sun... so we made something up, something nice, something that we liked, the idea that we liked the most. Seemed like the best idea at the time was that the earth must be at the center of everything. Come to find out, as everyone now knows, we were very wrong.

Now take existence itself, and what we know about it. As astronomers and astrophysicists have figured out that our universe is expanding as time passes, they have been able to reverse that expansion down to one singular point, a scientific theory called the big bang. So now we have a pretty good idea on how all "this" got "here". But that leaves us with one, astronomically large missing piece...

What caused the big bang? Truth be told, we don't know. The human animal species may never know the answer to that question. But it doesn't keep people from making one up now does it? The most popular view at this time in our history, is that a god or gods must have caused it. Maybe some day we will find out that we were all wrong, kinda like the earth being at the center of the universe. Maybe we are right, but i do know one thing... it is much easier to pretend you know, than to admit you don't.

It's like we are all still kids in school, someone tells you something you were not aware of, they ask you if you knew that... and you lie and say you did, in order to not feel like a fool. Silly isn't it? The difference in this case, in the case of religion, is that we are all aware of the fact that we do not know what caused the big bang, no one on the planet does, it's funny watching all the humans tramp around claiming they do.

Lol, silly humans.

Man created all religion, from as far back as the first homosapien that saw lightning and was afraid, could not explain it, felt anxious without knowing a reason (as was said, everything else he saw had cause and effect) so he created one; The great sky god.

The few superior homosapiens recognizing fear compelled action, expanded on this belief without ever holding it themselves, and elaborating on the consequences of disobedience of rules they themselves created for the new religion, convincing the people they knew these things using the oldest method in the world, deception. Religion now became a means of control, being so simplistic as a carrot and a stick lends credence to this general formation of religion worldwide despite lack of connectivity or shared heritage.

Perhaps at a time religion served a function, like the appendix, but as we evolved and no longer needed (to be threatened with eternal torture and pain to dissuade ourselves from wanton murder and anarchy) control we became capable of replacing religion with intelligence and common sense, an understanding of how a functional and productive society must work; So why do people still cling to beliefs?

Fear.