Religion is a sensitive subject for a big part of the human species especially older generations. Nevertheless given its core function in a person’s identity and in philosophy I must write on it. Disclosure: if you are religious and it benefits you and does not harm other people then please do as you please!
My belief is that we are simply vibes… not to sound too new age but it really does come down to vibrations (whether they are made of waves or particles or both is not my area of expertise). This is the extent to which I am spiritual. If you can tap into higher/different frequencies then you perceive different things. Usually, these are called spiritual or religious experiences.
We are made up of energy (see different types of forces below) which in our meme culture we colloquially call ‘vibes’.
Though I believe that energy is the dominant factor in the constellation one can further break this down into atoms/quarks (matter) and space (Note: “General relativity tells us that what we call space is just another feature of the gravitational field of the universe”). So when we talk about an afterlife you could in theory claim that you are distributed throughout the known universe (energy cannot be created or destroyed).
Classical religions on the other hand are simply vehicles to teach morals to communities. The narratives that bubble out of religions have an underlying lesson such as ‘do unto others as you would have done to you’ (golden rule), do not kill, do not steal, etc.
Though these are great morals to teach and uphold it breaks down when you attach these to narratives to a heaven/hell/ultimate judgment day/and a being(s) outside of our space/time that is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (everywhere), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnibenevolent (all-good) simply to increase the probability of communities adopting the narrative and passing it on (viral rate).
There is a fine line between mythology, religion, and Hollywood/fiction which most distinguish between because of the gross category delivered/taught through even though the categories are porous and where the boundaries lie is much more grey than black & white.
It would be amazing to have cryptographic signatures on everything going forward so we can more easily separate fact from fiction 500 or even 3000 years from now.
Circling back to the concept of vibes and energy: this may just be a form of religion itself. That is, to believe and live by the maxim that we need to be able to prove and reproduce everything through experiments.
Lastly, speculating a bit now but it would not be unthinkable that religion was a creation of the powerful/ruling classes so that their wealth, families, and personal lives are more likely to be protected.