Religion in Fantasy: Part 1, Why Faith?

If there's one topic I could study forever without getting bored or running out of subject matter, it's how people react to religion.

On a psychology level, humans are, to varying degrees, spiritual beings. Faith and worship are an integral part of every society. Every society in history has some type of mythology. Creation myths, anyone? Everyone needs a place to go when they can't find answers. The instinctive solution is to look to higher power. Something that makes certain that no matter how chaotic your own life is, things will be okay.

I see religion as sort of a parent. When you're little and it feels like your world is falling apart, you're always confused and you're scared out of your mind half the time, you go to mom and dad and they can reassure you that everything is okay. And you have complete faith that it will be, because it came from mom and dad. Well, the same thing applies when someone goes to their God (in whatever form God comes) to look for those answers. While mom and dad might not really know or can't really guarantee perfection, it gives you comfort. Faith gives you comfort.

Religion takes hold of people, gets so deep within them it can cause fear as much as comfort. Entire wars have been waged over whose religion is correct: an unanswerable question. And the unknown causes fear. Having your one sanctuary from unanswerable questions come crashing down would unravel everything, for most. And if you've ever studied history (especially European history), you'll know that the motivation behind almost everything leading up to today - politics, societal organization - has something to do with religion.

In summary, it's a building block of civilization. Which is why it also has a presence in almost all fantasy.