Totally agree OP, I think religion is one of the main things that would be a useful tranquilizer to the emotional state of defensive and oversensitive people.
Without having a virtual fairy tale or ritual to resort to from time to time, religious people would relapse to the point that most (if not all) of them would probably attempt suicide or LDAR. Throughout humanity, it has been shown religion was an effective pacifier to the emotions of people. It helps to maintain social order, it encourages people to remain civil, and it works as an incentive for people to continually show up to their wageslave jobs. It's easier to retain the compliance of multiple people when you constantly feed them with
rather than expose them to
, because the
pacifies emotions and the
/
stimulates the bitter, miserable emotions in people. Personally, I think some people are just not built for the
and it may be safer for them to remain
, because the
and
emotionally (and physically) destroys people.
Every single day, there are news stories about people who commit suicide or murder other people, because their
fantasy was shattered by an unprecedented event that forced them to take the
, like they found out their GF/wife cheated or wanted to leave, they lost all their financial capital, one of their friends or family members died, or they were denied of something they expected to receive. The
and
cause emotional damage, and many people are driven to commit murder or suicide as a result of taking the
or
. If everyone on the planet were to be forcefully removed from their
reality, many of them would simply become dysfunctional and default from existence. People are just not emotionally apt enough to survive outside of their
fantasy. They have to cope with something that hasn't been proven to exist outside of the abstract. Otherwise, they would relapse and resort to suicide or LDAR.
As humanity is a progressive species, they would need an incentive to be progressive. An emotional tranquilizer can be a useful motivator for progress. At some point in history, religion was probably the most feasible tranquilizer that humans had to employ on themselves. Why would humans continue to mate and survive without being convinced that their existence has any purpose? A progressive species needs an incentive to improve their intelligence and their resources. There may be people who want to live just out of pure curiosity for what the universe has to offer, and there may also be people who are just not intelligent enough to understand certain things. But when people use conjecture to justify their existence, it would just be a defence mechanism they are using to supress their innate anxiety about certain facets of life. What anxiety? The fear of being in the position to "not know", and the fear of not being able to understand something they can perceive. It terrorizes them - The thought of not knowing or not being able to understand what they can see.
When the religious people don't want to accept they are uncertain about the reason for a certain phenomena, they just default to the 'deity excuse' like a robot, saying something along the lines of "God knows", or "God wanted it that way", or "Ask God and he will tell you". When really, people are just too afraid to accept they are uncertain about the truth to certain issues in life. The thing about this terror of the 'unknown' is that it seems to surpass all other known fears. If this terror is left unmanaged, it can immobilize people and prevent them from being able to function properly (see
Terror Management Theory). Ultimately, that is why people may choose to resort to religion, socialization and other activities, with the aim to tranquilize their emotional state, numb their sensitivity to the terrifying facets of life, and incentivize themselves to support a potentially meaningless cause. They don't want their innate anxiety to override their emotional state. So they cope with whatever they can to soothe their emotions and avoid the scary questions about life that would make them feel unsettled and disturbed.
