Religion.. or rather, Belief.

There is something about God and religion and that whole deal that people have never understood, and explanations have drifted about for ages and ages. I want to take a shot at it now, because I have been asked why I believe in God, if I do. I think I do, though that's the next step, first I have to know what that is. A lot of people skip straight to that step, but I don't usually take short cuts unless it is to avoid physical activity. So.
I think it all has to do with that word 'belief'. Everyone needs something to believe in, something you can't prove but you can be absolutely sure of without any proof, and the lack of proof is the point. Or the available proof may not be generally acceptable and all that.
Everyone believes in something- some in The Force, some in the Greatness of Man, some in other things, like karma and nirvana, some in just themselves, and then some in God. It is fuelled by a need or desire, utterly personal, and the belief itself is also personal. Communities and societies don't come into it at all.
Each belief has some reason to it. I guess a need for achievement is fuelled by a belief in the Greatness of man, and then maybe it's the other way around. A belief in onoeself gives confidence. And the belief in God is the need for a person who fills a certain gap. For most people, it's the comfort derived from the thought of someone who cares. For, as I read somewhere, it is God's business to care. And so the thought of someone who cares and has the power to do something about it- well, it's more comforting than most things. So we believe, and are given strength, refuelled, again and then again.
Sometimes believing in God can be for other reasons as well, like habit or tradition or no real speculation into what you need to believe in. That could make you imbue God with characters he may not have had, so that he suits your purpose. Sometimes, when you can't forgive yourself for something, you let God do it for you. God becomes multi-purpose, so to speak. And then of course, there is the fact that it's the easiest to believe in, when you think that lots of greybeards, almost all historical architecture, around 85 or 90 percent of the world's population, i.e. about 5 and a half billion people, the Vatican treasury, Raphael's works, hymns and the magnitude of the Da Vinci Code debates all exist, proving to you that God exists. So there are lots of reasons why you should believe in Him, lots of so-called reliable sources that tell you God is a good bet. Sounds quite crude when you put it that way, but it is that way.
Of course, this is all from the viewpoint of the Christian religion, which is the only viewpoint I know, and it makes plenty of sense to me. I'm not sure of exactly what I believe, but I know that I do believe in something. As I might have mentioned before, my mind is a mess, and what I believe is probably a pinch of this and a dash of that forming a senseless stew, but it seems to work. And so we all get by.