Why?

[Forest Cat]

I have never been religious but sometimes if a cat is missing, I haven't seen him in two days and can't find him, I ask Odin to please bring the cat home safely. Because I'm a little desperate and willing to try anything to get the cat home. So I guess I'm a little religious if I get desperate enough.

 

[Jonn]

I've never understood the value in religious beliefs, people, please share you reasons if you follow one.

Hard-core atheist here.
I used to be "one of them", however.

As mentioned, religion provides existential comfort (where none exists, imo).
Religion also provides the means of indoctrination, particularly for children, and CAN provide/install a positive moral code before the child's brain has matured enough for more complex reasoning.
Adolescence often results in the demise of religious dogma.

 

[Hypnalis]

Regarding the "why?":

1. Tradition and customs are solutions to problems whose nature we have forgotten.

2. My personal theory about human spirituality is that it's closely related to human perception of "cause and effect". Animals have that, but for them it's almost entirely instinctive, while humans have to think about the "why", including imagining and testing possible causes for things that are not understood.
Creating conscious supernatural agent(s) as the cause of otherwise mysterious things is a natural effect if this.

3. And of course humans have a weakness for organizing via hierarchies, even when it's not appropriate.

Put those three together and you can get a good model for the existence of religions and the way they tend to degenerate into control hierarchies run by old men.
:
:
And for (1): if course any organized religion will include parts of the culture's customs and traditions.
Including the solutions to problems with the social order, and required behaviors that maintain stability.

Some of this "broke" in the 1970's, for the same reason as the roots of the population collapse can be traced to that decade. It's too late to fix it, so we're in for interesting times over the next 25 to 50 years ...

... if AGI doesn't get us first /lol.

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BTW - I'm an atheist of a type that's not often visible (but I'm not alone).

As may be clear above, I think religion is just an odd side-effect of Evolutionary Psychology.
Naturally I don't take the "supernatural agent" aspect seriously at all.
But I'm in favor of positive social grouping, so while I'm cautions about the details I'm not against the existence of religions as such.

The "implementation details" can be good, bad, or neutral. This seems to be largely random across different religions.

But most of the actual bad behaviors are clearly self-serving "human stuff" spliced in by hijacking and modifying the underlying principles to support secular objectives. An unfortunate side-effect of the hierarchies.

 

[Fino]

Hell is not punishment for not believing; it is the natural consequence of an eternal life without God.

 

[All-Rounder]

Hell is not punishment for not believing; it is the natural consequence of an eternal life without God.

In Xtianity Jesus died for the salvation of the soul, once one repents for their sins. Some Xtian sources say that Hell does not exist and people just get destroyed after death. It's called "annihilation."


Annihilation is the Natural Result of Death

The final death, or annihilation, of those who do not wish to live eternally with God is NOT punishment; it is simply the natural result of our innate mortality. We don’t posses innate immortality, but God offers immortality to us on the condition that we accept it. But if we reject the offer then we experience the natural consequence of mortality–extinction. Annihilation. It is our choice.
A Gentle Alternative to Punishment in Hell for Those Who Reject God’s Offer of Eternal Life—Conditional Immortality

"Christian mortalism is the doctrine that all men and women, including Christians, must die, and do not continue and are not conscious after death. Therefore, annihilationism includes the doctrine that "the wicked" are also destroyed rather than tormented forever in traditional "hell" or the lake of fire. Christian mortalism and annihilationism are directly related to the doctrine of conditional immortality, the idea that a human soul is not immortal unless it is given eternal life at the second coming of Christ and resurrection of the dead."

Hell - Wikipedia

 

[Fino]

In Xtianity Jesus died for the salvation of the soul, once one repents for their sins. Some Xtian sources say that Hell does not exist and people just get destroyed after death. It's called "annihilation."


Annihilation is the Natural Result of Death

The final death, or annihilation, of those who do not wish to live eternally with God is NOT punishment; it is simply the natural result of our innate mortality. We don’t posses innate immortality, but God offers immortality to us on the condition that we accept it. But if we reject the offer then we experience the natural consequence of mortality–extinction. Annihilation. It is our choice.
A Gentle Alternative to Punishment in Hell for Those Who Reject God’s Offer of Eternal Life—Conditional Immortality

"Christian mortalism is the doctrine that all men and women, including Christians, must die, and do not continue and are not conscious after death. Therefore, annihilationism includes the doctrine that "the wicked" are also destroyed rather than tormented forever in traditional "hell" or the lake of fire. Christian mortalism and annihilationism are directly related to the doctrine of conditional immortality, the idea that a human soul is not immortal unless it is given eternal life at the second coming of Christ and resurrection of the dead."

Hell - Wikipedia

Yes, I've always liked that hypothesis.

 

[tree]

REMINDER

OP's topic is
"...the value in religious beliefs, people, please share you reasons if you follow one."

This is not a debate over whether religious belief itself is valid.
You are invited to state your personal motivations for religious belief.

Please direct any further replies toward that topic.

 

[Jacks Brain]

I don't believe in the existence of god(s) - I consider it to be highly unlikely - but if one does exist and was somehow able to do all those things religious scripts claim they are capable of doing, then he/she/it must be an alien with massively superior technology. If they're not here on earth walking among us where we can see them, then where are they? They would have to be extraterrestrial.

Despite the silliness of "ancient aliens" shows, and the questionability of Zechariah Sitchin, I think this is by far the most likely answer, and in agreement with Sumerian mythology and the Bible. Especially when you deal with translation errors in the Bible and changes made by guys like King Josiah who wanted to simplify and unify things to fit their ideas of what the religion should be.

Sitchin thought there were never more than 600 Annunaki on Earth, and many left because the stupid worker they had created was just too stupid for them. Other than being around 8 feet tall, the ones who stayed would look human. They wouldn't exactly "fit in" but there are enough remote or off-limits places where a few hundred of them could live without trouble.