This idea of a higher being has been one of the most important things in human history. Entire civilizations have risen and fallen in the name of religion and faith. People have devoted their entire lives to theology and other god-related pursuits. But why do we care so much about higher beings? Why do we even believe in them? Why do we fight so hard for them?
One explanation can be our perception of the world around us. In today's world, we can explain a great many things with science. But what about the people before us? They did not have such explanations for things. They may see fire and wonder where it comes from. And since the only view of the world we have is through human eyes with a human mind, people could have seen that fire and said "something must have created this, as we create tools", or, "someone must have given us this to give us life, as we give life to our children and to our animals." And, since there wasn't any other explanation for it, it was believed to be true.
Going off the first idea presented, is this about the relation between religion and it's location. One famous example, the Garden of Eden, is believed by some to be the birthplace of humanity. In the Bible it says that four rivers ran from through and from Eden, two of which were the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. These two rivers were very important rivers in human history, home to many great Mesopotamian empires such as the Assyrians, Sumerians, and Babylonians. In India, the Ganges River has civilizations form around it and even now has millions of people living near it. It is revered as the goddess Ganga, and is believed to be connected to life and death. The sun has also been worshipped. In ancient Egyptian religion, Ra was worshipped as the god of the sun and the giver of life, thus being one of the most important of their gods. The Incas worshipped Inti, god of the sun and descendant of the civilization. The Aztecs worshipped the sun god Huitzilopochtli, who they believed brought them to Mexico. These are just a few examples of religion being related to cultural beginnings, but it definitely shows that some people tended to worship what gave them life.
Another life related reason for religion is death. As mortal beings, we will die. And because of our intelligence, we realize this fact. The most basic nature of living creatures is to survive, so when we see a clear, seemingly unavoidable end to our survival, then of course we'll fear it and try to stop it. But, what if there was life after death? What if you could have another chance? When people are given reassurance about life after death, they have no reason to fear it. Religions also tend to combine morality and quality of the after life together. Ideas such as sin and karma with consequences such as hell or reincarnation can make people live better lives with the reassurance that they won't be gone after death. That may sound good as an idea, but it can also have very negative effects if people take these ideas to their own advantage. One example would be indulgences, which were partially used to fund the crusades of the medieval period. This leads to the scary reality of religion being used as a way of control. Religions extremists are a very negative thing in this world. Many who use religion use it for their own gain, such as self proclaimed priests and deities, such as with some of the Egyptian and Roman rulers. If people worship you, they will fight for you, thus giving you supreme power, and if there is one thing humans love, it's power.
So I've covered gods and religion related to nature, life, death, and control. But then we must ask what are the gods? To start with this idea we have to look at the Kardashev scale. This scale categorizes civilizations based on the amount of energy consumed. It starts at type 0, which is the most basic form of civilization. Humanity is not yet type I, which uses all the energy of its planet. Type II can use the energy of its entire planetary system. Type III can use the energy of an entire galaxy. Type IV can control an entire universe. Type V can control multiple universes. So based on this scale, gods could be anywhere from as low as type III to as high as type V. A type III god or species of gods would only have control over this galaxy, so if that were the case there could be more gods in different galaxies. A type IV god would be in control of the entire universe, so a possible type IV would be the Abrahamic god. Type V would be in control of multiple universes, so that would be the most powerful and god like of the civilizations. But if they are just species, they aren't really gods, are they? It would be like how an ant would see the entirety of humanity. So it all has to do with perspective.
Now onto another thing about what gods actually are. A lot of gods tend to be spiritual or have some type of spirals thing connected to them. So would that mean that a god would be a type V if the spiritual realm were to be a separate universe? And does being a spirit take it off of the idea of being a species or civilization? I don't think it does. A civilization is just an advanced organization of beings, so a spirit could still be in a civilization. There could even be multiple different civilizations of gods which would explain why there are so many religions. Or if there is only one god, then the idea of civilization doesn't even have to be questioned. So why should we even worship these creatures? Is it fear? Yes. Is it respect? Yes. Is it gratefulness? Yes. So there is reason to worship them, if they were to exist.
In the end there is proof for and against the existence of gods, so believe whatever you want to. What you believe will not effect what another person believes and what another person believes will not effect you. If it does, then there is something wrong. This brings me to another thing about religion that happens way too often. People tend to force others into their religion, especially parents to children. If you do this, the kid will never have true faith, they'll only believe because you made them. That's the worst and weakest type of belief, and limits free thought.
