Creature that can value something, usually are afraid of death.
And be it your answer, religion, atheism, whatever. They just want to believe.
i hang around with religious people from time to time (mostly islamic) one had such a briliant argument i couldnt stop laughing (bad).
Smiles, all religious people in rational debating, their arguments are mostly remembered, scripted, and looks pre-trained. It has a very common pattern that is highly guessable. Thus it is mostly bad. They'll easily resort to name calling, labeling, and stereotyping and all sorts of it.
As a person not belonging to that denomination, i can defend their belief better than they do. I guess some of you non-believers can defend Christianity far better than the religious people too. Back in my senior high school, a strict Calvinist school, i got an 'A' at Bible preaching exam.
Some people just need to be taught that there is afterlife, so they won't be an all-opportunist asshole while still living in this world. Too many people working constantly throughout their life that they have so little time to enjoy their life, so they resort to become annoying opportunist (steal what you want whenever possible, avoid tax, illegally if necessary, and seek a chance to milk first-world country's social system). Some of their hard work goes to your enjoyment in first-world countries. So you can relax, have a lot of time, thinking silly issues like whether god exist or not and rebelled, challenging the establishment.