Religions and the roles they play

I have had this theory for a long time about the purpose of religion and the existence of the concept of God. I wanted to put my thoughts down in words in order to gain clarity for myself and to explain my point of view to others. You may agree with me or completely find my theories ridiculous. Nonetheless, I ask you to contribute your views on the subject.

Man's edge over other mammals was his ability to think and reason. As soon as he gained this ability, he used it to question everything around him, to understand the world better, to gain control over it. He understood the role the animals and plants around him played in the nourishment and wellness of his family. And once he learnt the art of agriculture and moved away from the hunter-gatherer form of existence, he understood the role that the winds and rains and the earth played in his life. The more he understood of the role these entities played in his life, the more he revered and respected them. Concurrently he also made the move of seeing them as individual entities i.e. the animals, trees, winds, etc. to looking at them in a single form - nature.

The more he learnt about the role nature played in his life, the more he revered it. And in approximately 2500 B.C.E. he even made efforts to anthropomorphize nature by giving it a human form and names like 'Pashupathi' (a god of the people of the Indus Valley Civilization known to be the predecessor of 'Shiva'). This was a good strategy because it allowed everyone in the society to put a 'face' to the things that influenced them, the things they depended upon for food, clothing, medicines and basic survival. Further, by having ascribed human characteristics to nature, they were now able to understand the acts of nature in terms of the characteristics of a person. For instance if there was thundering and lightening, a very frightening event for children, their parents were able to simply explain to them saying that Pashupathi was angry at something. Or, if there was a drought, famine or disease, Pashupathi was punishing them. And in times of plenty, Pashupathi was happy with them.

On an unconscious level, by ascribing human characteristics, the people also had began to believe that it was possible to influence Pashupathi to change his ways, that it was possible for them to ask in a particular way and make him do things that were in their favor. So great was man's need to influence everything around him (he had learnt farming and to make plants grow according to his needs , domesticated animals and made them do his laborious tasks and built houses and learnt to control the weather) that he delved into it trying to figure out how this was possible. After understanding something, we try to control it - it's very basic human nature, it's in our blood.

So just as one would rationalize with another human, man began to request Pashupathi for favors in the form of simple requests, but as man was experimenting this idea, it might have evolved to requests placed in solitude and in full concentration (today's prayers). A chance occurance where a prayer was requested and the prayer was "answered" might have sparked off a wide-spread belief in it - to find the logic behind it, think of the greatest legal scam on earth - the lottery or a casino. And when it didn't work, it was rationalized with "you're not doing it correctly", or "you're not doing it with enough faith", or "you have to ask it with a pure heart", all of which were reasonable explanations to the lesser evolved minds of the time.

The concept grew further and further with the help of 'specialists' until the priests had an esoteric solution to every conceivable problem that man could face. The prayers also became specific, for instance, if you were not able to conceive a child, you were to do a set of tasks (however helpful or not they were) and your problem would be solved.

Though science grew side-by-side and began to explain things within the realms of understanding, there were ample unknowns that remained, and still remains even to this day. It is therefore not surprising that we still 'believe'.

I'm sorry that this has such a 'plausible' feel to it rather than being based on facts. I believe it is only by theorizing that we can gain a direction to research and find the facts. It's much harder to do when you have no direction. Anyway, it is a logical progression in my mind. Please post your thoughts and comments.