I've been wanting to reply to this all day, but couldn't until I got home and could
get on the laptop.

We can be broken and still remain logical and reasonable.
I do it every day.

That is a great question! As I think about my years spent in religion...I would say, I was scared, lonely and broken. But, as I began to pull away from religion, I became stronger! I see this happen with some of my peers over that time. So maybe religion captures us, and supports our weaker side, until the time it wears out...as certain personalities transcend their brokenness?

I believe the majority of believers are victims of brain washing. Lots of kids are hearing bible stories and praying before before they can read. . .

We are all " broken " one way or another , and the degrees varies . Its odviously among the less educated or among the abused or among the unfortunate , that gods and devils will thrive . But not unusual for gods and devils to thrive among the educated ones too . In these cases , self centerered personalities , fear of death , and need for belonging are greater than " logic " or education / facts .
Life is hard apparently . I don't judge anymore how anyone copes w their shortcomings or w the daily dose of " wtf ". I used to . When younger and " I know it all ". As life is happening and realization that " I don't know jack ", my empathy grew . The reason I look down at religious of all types humans is not that I find their ways of coping w life ridiculus . Whatever . Is Bcz their beliefs , ALL RELIGIONS , are harmful to humanity . Especially women and children . It's like a disease , a sick patient that I can't help . And not only I can't help him / her , but I am watching him / her spreading disease . It kills me .

Your question only makes sense if you're asking if religion appeals primarily to unusually broken people, which is a bit of a subjective judgment.

Certainly fundamentalist Christianity has a big value proposition to the demographic of People Who Regard Themselves As Especially Broken. The vast majority of the testimonials I heard in my youth followed the general pattern of:

1. I was addicted to drugs / alcohol / sex / cruelty / general profligacy

2. I hit some kind of personal bottom

3. Someone explained my problem in terms of being without god and led me to god

4. My life was transformed and now I'm a respectable family man / church leader

I've previously shared this general pattern in my oldest brother's life in the early 1960s. I've seen it in many, many others.

Here's one that I specifically remember being presented to me in the 1970s in the form of a low-budget drama produced by Gospel Films:

[daveboyerministries.com]

The most-cited such testimonies are just like this: the subject is literally on their way to commit suicide when they just so happen upon a little church or a kindly Christian who saves them from their wicked intent.

I come into contact with educated, wealthy people daily and the reasons you suspect are true to a large extent - rich, successful, highly educated people are also scared, ignorant, lonely, insecure, and depressed.

I have personally known of and had dealings with people who are 'broken' and have turned to religion only to become even further damaged and 'broken' as the end result.
Speaking here as semi-retired Psychologist, Religions are a kind of drug of addiction and sadly there are no rehabilitation treatments/facilities readily available for it.

So there is a difference between "God" and organized religion. These are separable though many can't. I understand because of the damage that organized religion has done to so many but I don't necessarily agree that this then a priori demonstrates that there is no "God".

Not trying to cause a flame storm or whatever but I have to confess that in the past year I have decided that I am not an atheist. I remain firmly an agnostic.

For many, it has been passed down from generation to generation. It's all they know and they were taught not to question it. Not so much of being broken but being disillusioned and misguided through the years.

In college I had a dick of a professor in a religious studies class(history major requirement) who required we write a 10-15 page paper about why God was real. I wrestled with this topic and in the end chose answer the question from a similar point of view of where your asking this question.

The paper of course had to be fully cited so I read several books on the subject and the general scholarly concept comes down to the brain of humans and how it is hardwired in such a way as to lend it's self to the belief in God. The simplest way to explain it is : ever notice how people tend to see faces in random shapes (man in the moon, tree bark, toast) it's because our brain is hardwired to search for faces as a survival instinct, the majority of people believe in God because it's simply easier to do so, it's a left over instinct from our more primal days. Despite our evolution, changing the hardwiring of the brain takes a long time, as a species were getting there, it's just taking time.

Also indoctrination added on top of the brain hardwiring.

I believe that we are all broken. I say this because we are not perfect and what we do could have had a slightly different outcome most of the time. If your life had more misses than hits you might turn to gods for guidance. An alternative to this would be that you were raised in a religious system. Brainwashed early on because your family was religious. Even so, my all-time bothersome statement from religious people is "then who do you worship?" Why do we think we have to worship anything?

I agree - religion appeals primarily to broken people but also to the power-brokers and politicians who adorn a cloak of pretence to assert more control over the masses - evident over the last few hundred years in the Christian and Islamic world. Unfortunately even Buddhists have fallen for this deceit as the powers that be in Myanmar have demonstrated recently.

As Leonard Cohen said:- [paraphrased] - "There is a crack in everything - that's how the light gets in". The light could be the joy of nature or an inspirational poem.... or for some, other mythical inspirations...

Some folk think they need to believe in a greater power (for some reason or another) - should we as agnostics or atheists discriminate against such ignoramus theists who have in desperation surrendered their fate to an omnipotent creator of their own construct? I don't think we can - we can just reassure with anecdotes of how amazing the universe is that science is showing that we live in.

No one including theists, atheists and agnostics has all of the answers to those Universal questions... perhaps we all need to be prepared to be more open to probabilities and possibilities and not prematurely close opportunities for learning.

Michael Shermer has results from research he conducted as part of his affiliation with Skeptic magazine and Skeptics Society. The results are published in his book "How We Believe". Surveys were sent to members of the Skeptics Society and separately to a random sample of the public from a polling company. Respondants were asked to answer a number of questions about their belief in God and religion as well as questions about their income levels, education levels, their religious background, etc. The results from both sets of surveys showed the same trends even though the magnitude of responses was much greater among Skeptics Society members than the general public (which was understandable and expected). Concerning education, the result showed a negative correlation between the level of education and their belief in God meaning the more education an individual had, the more likely they would disbelive in God and religion. Among scientists, the greatest degree of disbelief existed even though the same trend could be observed - those with greater education were more likely to disbelieve.

I don’t know if I’m defining “broken” the same as others, but I don’t think it’s as much that as it is education. And I have a very broad interpretation of the word “education”. My father graduated high school, but never went to college, and he was one of the most intelligent people I ever knew, because he read. He read just about anything he could get his hands on, and his knowledge about several subjects was much broader and deeper than mine, and I’ve got two degrees. I think education makes the biggest difference when it comes to falling for the illusions and lies of religious thinking.

Lots of questions but IMO the wrong approach. The deep questions about existence in reality as a consciously aware entity are staggering in their implications. Let me tell you, there’s a lot more to this situation than meets the eye.

As an analogy think about gravity. Gravity is a very complex subject, not easily understood, but there are some ideas and theories. Can you imagine someone saying, “Does the quantum theory of gravity appeal primarily to broken people? Could the argument be made that quantum gravity theory, and by extension, quantum fields, be an answer for all the scared, ignorant, lonely, insecure, depressed people who feel helpless in a universe that doesn’t give a shit about them?”

No, such questions would not be asked. If a person wanted to take part in discussions about quantum gravity he would have to address the actual issues—say something of substance that applies to the subject at hand.

Even if you are a professional psychiatrist, psychoanalyzing your debate opponents will get you nowhere. There are some very real questions at hand that deserve serious attention.

To answer your question tersely, it's tradition.

I have been wrestling with this for quite some time. My kin are so devout and happy in their beliefs that i think it doesn't serve any positive purpose to try and convince them otherwise. They are hardly militant about it and its more like tradition than an actual belief system to them. I don't however hide the fact that i am skeptical but i don't go around challenging everyone to a debate.

What has surprised me is that my empathy and humanity has been quoted to say that I am in fact a better 'muslim' than most others? I think this is their way of keeping me included in the family tradition and dare I say... think more of me than what the religion demands via apostasy. I think thats a small victory for me

I know I can only do that because I live in the UK and in a muslim country i would already be dead or keeping my lack of beliefs to myself. But it is none the less a beginning for doubt and question to spawn in my little network.

Religion appeals because most folks are spoon fed from infancy. When you've been taught religion every day of your life it becomes part of you.

religion is too widespread for us to generalize about broken people. i know a lot of broken atheists too. in addition, not all religions are the same and thus while the appeal of having a deity on which to rely to a greater or lesser degree is the same, the details are not, and the details are important too. furthermore, not everyone, even within the same religion, is equally religious, or interprets that religion the same way. so there is no way to generalize about any of it. i do not see jimmy carter as broken, ignorant, lonely, insecure, depressed or any of the rest, and he is a deeply religious man.

g

i would really question how many "rich, powerful ppl" really believe in a god. i doubt if a proclaimed atheist could ever make it very far in politics today. so i don't, for one minute, believe all these RPP
are really believers.
i further doubt that there are many rich, powerful IGNORANT ppl.

The difference is the willingness to suspend belief to examine all the facts.

Does seem to predominant in that group

Only about 7% of (elite American) scientists are religious (the number is actually more like 40% for scientists as a whole, and this is only dealing with American scientists)... which, in my opinion, is excessively high. I think the answer to your question is weak-minded people don't have what it takes to face reality head on. And by "weak-minded" I don't mean dumb or stupid; I mean "mentally fragile" however that term may apply. But that's only half the formula. The other half is weak of character. When those two are combined, religion isn't far behind. Fortunately, some people are able to strengthen both their mind and their characters and overcome the need to believe in fairy tales.

EDITS IN PARENTHESIS FOR THE SAKE OF ACCURACY - UPDATE IN BOLD FOR TRANSPARENCY

I have met women who suffered horrible physical and sexual abuse in childhood, who became extremely religious. I can understand why they cling to religion. But so many of them join churches that are anti-woman. Very sad.

Right on... Once you are an atheist, you see the ignorance... It's all over the world...

I think it's mostly indoctrination..