The God Delusion

Religion did not develop as a consequence of man quest for an explanation of the world. Religion does not spring naturally from the normal workings of the human mind. Religion originated because of fear. Our human ancestors lived in constant fear of the unknown, but their greatest fear was death. They couldnt accept this fact and sought for an alternative, creating the myth that dying was a passage into another life, and this is how religion originated. Primitive man formed ritualistic groups that involved rhythmic dancing and the ingestion of psychotropic substances that produced ecstatic emotional states.