"Why are we so gullible? "

Because we are slowly mutating beasts with no rational reason to be intelligent.
Skepticism and intellectual honesty are not necessary to breed; to the contrary, they are often impeding the process.

Natural selection doesn't promote intelligence. Hasn't for thousands of years. At some point in our evolution, something went terribly wrong and humans were crippled by depressions; instead of dying out they lessened their symptoms by fanatically stroking their egos and entitlement.

Fearing death is a major element as well. The church can control your life. Lots of power. I say Fuck em.

Scared people are dangerous, and will do anything to secure themselves in ignorance. To afraid to learn the truth, and to scared to accept it when they find it.

Exactly!

P. T. Barnum said it: there's a sucker born every minute!

"Not wanting to be forgotten" isn't the half of it; most people do not want to cease to be, either. The fear and loathing of mortality is, I think, the biggest driver of religion, ultimately. Secondarily, other forms of the unknown -- the need for "explanations" for tragedy, unfairness, injustice and ways to rationalize those things and still have hope. Many prefer comforting lies to dealing in reality when it comes to such questions.

For me, at least, the problem was that when those abstractions started to leak, it created more problems for me than it solved. Religious faith was an epistemology that failed to accurately explain or predict lived experience, often being literally 180 degrees wrong (and I don't like surprises). It failed to comfort me in grief, failed to protect me from harm, and just generally rendered my life more, rather than less, baffling.

Now I can embrace life as what it actually is -- a series of things happening -- some of which I like, others of which I don't. But it's not personal. It's not a failure of some deeply interventionist god to intervene as needed; it's not a judgment on my worthiness; it's not about me whatsoever. It's not about anything really. It just IS. Once you get that through your head, and don't have to reconcile the vicissitudes of life with this loving, caring sky wizard, then SO much frustration and disappointment and pain and confusion vanish in a puff of logic.

But the eternal soul and imaginary self, as you put it, is something people cling to because, in my view, of failure of imagination -- they can not imagine life without that clinging, even when it isn't working for them. Religion tells them they're not doing it right, and have to try harder. And they can't contemplate going it alone.

I leave them to it; they are welcome to it. It never worked for me.

Facts! Our brains play tricks on us to make processing information easier and less energy consuming.

If animals (who, of course, God created, so we are led to believe by the pious) gathered in religious groups or scribed the sign of the cross with their cloven hooves, I would be more inclined to believe that religion is not just from the minds of men!

Perhaps you should look to Plato for the soul as that is where the idea originates for the purpose of Western thought.

Might give you your answer.

You can only speak for yourself, and others you know. Many different feelings on such things.

If I'm forgotten, I care not one teeny bit !

I do not care if I am forgotten...why would i?

Seems there’d be some deep psychological research on that.. As a guess, maybe having ‘just become aware,’ most humans are unable to turn off the thrill of it - thus cling to desires and fantasies ‘that keep us going forever’…

It obviously begins as a cultural thing. Progressing due to limited education, and ending up as an imposed scam from the ruling class. I like to think opportunities ‘like this,’ to share information around the world will be our savior. But lately, as internet networks become divided by single-party nations ...who knows [so yes - more GROG]