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Religions are not based on any evidence or reason, they are created to feed various emotional needs such as the need to feel loved or the need for justice.
The origin of religion in general and for particular religions is usually controversial, since religions often claim of themselves to have been derived directly from information supplied by god(s) to choosen human messanger(s). Followers of the religion (by definition) accept the claims. However followers of a particular religion may however have no difficulty in suggesting human origins for the hundreds of other practiced religions.
It appears that religion was practiced before the invention of writing, with stories passed down orally from one generation to the next. Evidence for religious ideas can be found in elaborate burial practices in which valuable objects were left with the deceased, perhaps intended for use in an afterlife or to appease the gods. This reached its most spectacular form with the creation of the [pyramids of Giza]? and the other great tombs of ancient Eygpt?. It's possible to speculate on religion developing gradually, from stories originally created for entertainment or told to children, elaborated over generations and eventually accepted as fact.
Religions created in modern times are often reasonably well documented (e.g., Scientology.) Reasons for the creation of religions seem to include desire to obtain wealth and power over others. It's easy to speculate that similar forces were at work in the creation of earlier religions: often state politics is also likely to have been an important factor. It has been suggested that humans are particularly easily influenced by religious ideas because they feed various emotional needs such as the need to feel loved or the need for justice.
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