I think the word for this is "culture", not "God". I highly recommend taking an anthropology class. It's fascinating and eye-opening stuff. The entire course is basically all about this topic. It's case study after case study of this group or that group (often tribes since it works well as a microcosm) looking at how they operate as a group and what shared beliefs, values, traditions, norms, and rituals they have.<p>In the modern world and in larger societies, we tend to separate the ideas of ethics, values, religious beliefs, understanding of the natural world, education, and civil order (law, etc.) into different spheres of life, but in smaller groups, they can be all mashed together into a singular "this is what the tribe believes and how it works" thing.<p>So for example, in the US we don't have a state religion and we do have freedom of religion (mostly), which means our government and our church aren't the same cultural institution. But in some societies, they are. European countries have vestiges of this. Some countries in other parts of the world are literal theocracies.<p>And in most modern societies, the learned members of societies aren't the same group of people as the priests, but in some societies they are and you have a class of clerics who deal with all intellectual matters including religion, the natural world, and maybe other stuff.<p>So various societies decouple these different areas of life to different degrees. Some societies (and some elements within a given society) demand more uniformity than others.<p>---<p>So, why is culture such a strong force? Why do people ardently believe in things they were taught, regardless of evidence? Why do some traditions have such importance to people? Personally, I think it's because the human brain is hardwired to promote a common culture. I think we have a basic drive to spread cultural ideas and a drive to accept cultural ideas. We humans are social animals. Along with intelligence, it is what makes us successful as a species. For a group to function, it needs some shared rules and beliefs and agreement about what its goals are. In order to agree on those, I think we're built to promote and accept ideas from our culture. It also helps us preserve useful ideas over long periods of time.<p>But just like any drive, while it has a purpose, it's important to limit and control it. We also have a drive to eat delicious foods, but that has to be controlled. Culture should serve our needs, not the other way around.