Why do people WANT or NEED to believe in a supreme creator like God?

Belief in a god probably goes back to times when people didn't understand how the seasons worked. And when winter came and the crops no longer grew, some sort of sacrifice would have been made to the sun, and then it came back and the crops grew. The people would have associated the sacrifice with the positive outcome, and they wouldn't have dared not do it again because they couldn't risk famine.

In time the sacrifice will have become more sophisticated, and perhaps the idea came about that the sun might be the gift of a god rather than the god itself. This might be a way, or similar to a way, that religion developed.

People would then have assumed that the laws that their ancestors devised came from the god, so the religion would have become even more sophisticated still, providing authority for the laws and fear of a vengeful god if laws were disobeyed, and the same fear would make others stone to death anyone who breached a law to avoid vengeance being visited on the whole community.

There are probably other elements, but it will have gone back to the dawn of civilisation.

And it's become institutionalised, and there are many religions, cults, sects and denominations (including "non-denominational", "not a religion but a personal relationship...", and many others). It's survived because it's become institutionalised, provides a living for some, and is deeply ingrained into traditions and into national, international or intra-national identities; that it's still survived is both puzzling and fascinating.

Everyone is afraid of death when they get older, for these folks it is a way of looking forward to an afterlife with spirits of passed relatives. There is no god we are just the same as every other living thing on earth including plant life because we have all evolved from one thing bacteria from asteroids suspended in ice. you will not know when you die just fall asleep one day. God in its many forms is the cause of many wars as the difference of opinion and beliefs varies. people who are weaker minded need someone to look up to a leader or a saviour.

Maybe humans do have a deep-seated desire to live forever, to see their enemies receive ultimate punishment, to have a perfect parent, to have someone omnipotent to thank for good things and to blame for disasters, or something else along those same lines. But so what? That doesn’t prove or disprove anything about God.

Whether I want something or not is no proof of whether it exists. Maybe we have a deep longing for God or maybe we don’t. Either way, it doesn’t affect the question of his existence.

Nothing that we hold as important is real unless there is a Creator. Meaning and purpose and a life worth living are fictions unless there is a Creator.

Why do people WANT or NEED to believe in a supreme creator like God?

What's in it for them?

~~~ 'Beliefs' are not rationally chosen, they are 'caught', like leprosy!

The feeling that death isn't permanent for one, a very tempting idea. It also wipes out all need and responsibility for personal judgment, because you just have to refer everything to an infallible authority figure.

Once you have experienced it, you would know. Until then, you can play connecting dots an eternity and you wouldn't be capable of figuring what spirituality is about.

It's very comforting to think that there is a big buddy looking out for you even if that buddy is a illusion.

Some people need to be lead around by the nose because they either can't think or refuse to think.

They never feel alone and they think their life is justified by the promise of a second life that will be even better. Personally, I feel a little more robust than that.