@LostInParadise Any world where babies, animals and old people are raped and murdered every day is not a world I would call paradise.
As far as Purgatory, I mean that the concept of Valhalla, Fólkvangr back to ancient Egyptians and what it took to reap your rewards in the afterlife (aka Heaven) is common in most cultures/religions. What’s really fascinating to me is what determines if you go to ‘hell’ or not ie Tartarus and Niflhel.
That’s probably part of the reason I find atheists intriguing. It’s much more common to believe than it is not to believe, even now.
Here’s an interesting article: https://theconversation.com/religious-decline-was-the-key-to-economic-development-in-the-20th-century-100279
I don’t really see prayer as flattery as much as gratitude but yes, the bible does say God is a jealous god in several places.
Exodus 20:5 ESV
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
https://www.openbible.info/topics/god_is_a_jealous_god