Interesting article! This is something I have also thought a lot about. But I think there are three other reasons for religion--and they speak to its creation, not just the tendency of many to believe in it:

1) It gives men the power to control others and creates a hierarchy. You'll notice that all the current monarchs are designated as ordained by God. It justifies all kinds of ridiculous assumptions: caste systems, etc.

2) It provides an answer to the unanswerable. People uncomfortable with uncertainty need something to base their existence on--telling them we have no idea what's behind the universe or how the big bang happened doesn't satisfy them.

3) Lastly, most people need to feel as if they know what happens when they die. They need to believe they'll meet their loved ones again--the idea that this life is all there is just isn't tenable--especially for people who live in poverty and misery. To prevent complete hopelessness and despair, they buy into the concept of religion because it gives them a reason to believe they don't really die.

I can understand this temptation--but like you, my logical brain won't let me believe in religion. To me, it's just too obvious that it was created for men to make money and have power--they just knew how to appeal to the masses and used that knowledge to their benefit.

It's not entirely different from how Trump uses the basest instincts of unhappy people who prefer to blame others for their misfortunes than take responsibility for them. He gets them at a primal level and uses it for his benefit.