Religion

I had this interesting question figured out in a dream(I'm generally an atheist and interested in the topic).
What is religion and how come its so powerful, popular and long-lasting? Is there any reality to gods?

gods are tulpa(being created as thoughtform) which feed from energy of their believers (faith/prayer/focus)
They all exist in same time until their followers stop interacting with them.
What you join active faith,you're basically feeding demons(demons with human nature and religion inspired characteristics) which want to do whatever they can to increase feed(it is combined power of belief and interested in more souls powering it). You can now imagine what believing in Cthulhu and focusing on it will do in the long run...

>>1
I've asked myself that same question. So far, from my research and practical applications I've derived these partial solutions.

Check out these aspects:
Anthropomorphism;
ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human, esp. to a deity. (the projection of knowing human attributes and ascribing them to things that are not human.)

God is the contradistinction to human
God: Everywhere at once, knows everything, immortal, all good, infallible.
Human: One location at any given moment, limited knowledge, mortal, both good and bad, fallible.
(In other words, a means to better know ourselves is by what we are not.)

When the latter is utilized, what happens is, you begin to serve the possibility of someone else besides yourself and in the action of performing the service, you build skill-sets and habits conducive to relationships with other humans.

Also, there is the idea, that by doing this you can also serve your future family that you will have, even though you may be young and uncertain of the possibility.

An example of this?
If I were to assume that my property was loaned to me by another (God, for example) I would be more inclined to take care of it due to an internal pressure rather than an external one. And in doing so, when someone actually does loan me their property, I will already have the skills and habits to be accommodating and build upon relationships with others.

There is a person outside of this person. Even when there is nobody around but yourself, if you assume this as true, you will practice the truth of it in your own life and bring that truth to others through your living actions.

...and it all started with an assumption.

Well, that's my understanding of it anyway.

Now I'm working on ego-projection and human redundancy systems, focusing attention on uniqueness which creates depth in patterns or commonalities in everything (patterns stand out more). When the ego-projects what it knows of these differences onto what is being seen already, it becomes reinforced by perception of knowledge of perception.
Of course, there is also the truth between the differences of thought and action.

Whoa! What a trip!

Purpose for existence? Cause you didn't exist before you existed.

Because no one else doing it is the purpose to do it.

Oh...there is so much more here than meets the eye...it's too much to even comprehend without the differences of new experiences to balance the imagination and knowledge.

When you pay attention to what changes, you begin to understand that learning is living, and knowing is dying. Hence, increased knowledge increases sorrow.

Because there is sorrow, is the purpose of strength!
That there is evil that we perceive, is the purpose to do good!

Especially because we know the answers is the purpose to ask the questions! Hell, turn the answers into questions!

And what have I learned? You can either resist what works, or use what works. The choice is yours to make for your future.

Welcome to the possibility of your future.

I'm also considering the possibility of movement as the cause for all purpose. When one stunts and drops to the ground it's not a value based equation of virtues needed, but rather a question of how to rationalize future steps. However this justifies questionable means used to achieve the goal, which may further along the way develop fully into ethical-egoism. It's predecessor would be nihilism which says that every choice is arbitrary. But I don't think most of us desire that sort of emptiness, so we break for a getaway and try to reinvent values without God, which proves to be futile because God was the origin of everything. The demise of the origin leads us to a search for something that endures and remains true in all situations - the prime attrubute of God -. Existentialism, the western world tries to create a shared platform of universally true morals but these morals turn out to have a shared demise; they remain arbitrary without a strong foundation. Like for example an institution with the authority and power to assess their validity. Like religion.

>>3
Hmm...or possibly the lack of movement is the purpose for movement. The universe was still till it moved, we did not exist until we came into existence and moved, we observe others complacency which is what makes us move into action...imho. Hmm..I do see what you mean by reinventing values without God, because essentially, it is a difficult thing to set aside bias without considering that one is already bias especially when it comes to one's own assessment of validity.

That's why I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others, because the assessment is of something someone is externally doing (outside of my personal bias) and by correcting it in my own life I am able to live according to how I would see it. Especially knowing that I am not God because I believe in God and miracles I also believe that what I believe in is not myself, but the axiom that will lead to my future maxim, but that sense of belief still resides within me...and that is true power. To effect change in one's own circumstances is the greatest gift I have ever received in my life.
If I continue living for another (God), when I do have my family, the habits will be there, the intention will be there, and the sense of doing what is right by them will be there; all I was waiting for was them.
As far as I am concerned, self-respect and learning of oneself is the ultimate goal of any religion or system of belief, even if it is to realize that we can never truly know anything and that self is something arbitrary in itself, possibly an illusion to sustain integrity and honesty, but without a sense of self separate from God yet a part of God makes for a unique understanding of self-worth and an ability to know we are vulnerable, limited in knowledge, mortal, etc.

You could say religion's original intention from the start had been to promote selfishness using unselfish actions. Altruism is an unselfish means of self-preservation. It places others before self yet also ensures self-preservation as well.
And with morality, it post-pones self-desires until other people's desires have been fulfilled. In this, there is a preservation of ego because we have preserved others' ego. Just as we can allow another to save face before we ourselves save face in our own defense.

There is much to learn, knowing that we can not truly know anything, is the purpose for learning as much as we can while we can. The limitations of the human condition is the purpose for transcending it.

I hope this assists you to some degree. While I don't participate in affiliate activities, I understand the benefit of common-ground between like-minded individuals in affiliations, however, I also find that many people would much prefer to be right than to learn and that is why I prefer to let them do what they do so that I may do as I do.

To tie something else up, what do you think about law of the jungle thinking? Might is right, alpha/beta thinking, retaliation, moral authority, rules of engagement, etc, when it comes to its integration or alleviation with or from altruism, idealism, and the like.

I've heard many people say that all of that "law of the jungle" doesn't exist in human nature any more, but I tend to disagree for a number of simple reasons;
1) we still have a reptilian and mammalian brain which supports the "law of the jungle" thinking in the first place.
2) evidence of other people's behavior is pretty substantial evidence to the contrary.

As a matter of opinion, I would have to say that "law of the jungle" thinking is the foundation for which altruism, idealism, and the like all stand upon as opposed to replaces it.

It would be foolish of me to assume something is gone just because something else has my attention. The actions of "law of the jungle" thinking may be neglected and abandoned, but to ignore and forget the "law of the jungle" thinking for lack of perceivable action is what demonstrates the action of "law of the jungle," which is the current human condition we are all being afflicted with to various degrees at this current time, imho.

but what do you think?