Religion=Kid's Story about Death??

I have come across a bit of an interesting thought while reading some of the posts in the religious forums. Many people agree that religions feed off the fears of hell and pain because noone wants to be in eternal damnation when they can be in eternal happiness. So we know that this is used to control people, but maybe religions had more innocent beginnings.

I had a thought that maybe the foundation of religion was just people trying to give hope to children. I mean the thought of death is the biggest fear of humanity, so why not make up a story that gives death a happy ending. We do this even to this day, when we have youn children most people make up a story to ease their kids minds and make death easier.

So how do you explain death to a child? Tell them that their deceased loved one went to a place of eternal happiness. This answers the great 'what happened to ...' and makes them at ease because the dead person is in a place of eternal happiness.

If a story like this is spread through the ages and this is what they are taught to believe then this would soon become the accepted view of death. An adult could have used the threat of NOT going to this eternal happy place to discipline and help train their child (probably as a for of threatening). The leader of the tribe/society would have acceptable rules for the town, much like modern laws, and anyonenot following those rules could be scolded and threatened by not being accepted in the 'heaven'.

Then God comes in to explain everything in the universe that can not be explained and through time you have the evolution of modern organized religion.