Why do gods and religions exist?

Something that I feel is interesting is how the concept of gods and religions is shared across multiple civilizations. Essentially, almost every other civilization believes there’s some higher being that overlooks us. However, statistics has taught me that correlation is not causation, so I feel the jury is maybe still out. Personally, I do believe that gods exist. I am also a mild believer in Hinduism. But the question I have been thinking about recently is why people believe in gods and religions? 

One of the big reasons for this belief, I think, is Hope. Believing in gods and religion allows people to transfer a part of their anxiety about their future to someone else. It’s nice to think that some higher being will take care of me, assuming I follow the rules. When things become challenging, I can ‘hope’ for things to improve because I follow the ‘rules’. Hope is really what gets people going at the end, I think. Life is hard, and it will probably be depressing if you are not hopeful about a better tomorrow. 

The other fascinating part about religions and gods is the rules. At the end of the day, religions are an effective traditional way of controlling people. The rules define what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable, therefore managing how a society should function. I think it’s nice that religions with rules exist and people follow them; otherwise, there would probably be too much chaos.