Pattern recognition

Pattern recognition may have started as a predator's tool, a way to know what the prey was going to do and to plan for that action.
We can see this in wolves running down a deer in turns. Deer are fast but wolves can turn a deer in circles and tire it with tag team running. They can chase hooved prey into a rocky riverbed where the hooves will slip on the stones. Or in winter they might panic a herd to cause them their hooves to break through the snow, which the wolves and their large footpads can easily traverse.

Pattern recognition in humans has grown into part of our intelligence. It is one of the means we use to understand the universe.
It is even a standard by which we judge intelligence.
Whether we're watching a player across the poker table for patterns when he wins or loses a hand, or knowing that your spouse will want that last cup of coffee in the pot, we use pattern recognition in every part of our lives.

There are patterns in religions, too.
The miraculous birth, the virgin mother, the death and resurrection... the recognition of patterns in religion are one of the reasons atheists do not believe in gods.

Any religion is just one more religion with similar patterns, born of previous religions, followed by the scared and the stupid, and run by the unscrupulous and the immoral.

Religion is as predictable as war for profit and governments turning against their people for greed.

Recognise the pattern?