Why is religion especially Christianity so widely practied?

[The Grand Nudger]

lol, i think the billions of people who believe in “fairy tales”, the near universality of such beliefs, reveal how easily we are susceptible to believing them.

And yes while everyone doesn’t believe the same exact fairy tale, everyone seems to believe in one fairy tale or the other. They’re more susceptible to believe in one, than not believe in any.

Well..yeah, sure.  We're very susceptible.  That's more a con than a pro.  A reason to take extra care, not a reason to believe or assume that there is some validity to the belief.  

A lot actually. It’s just as important as role models, are in the shaping of our identify. What you believe, and who you are, your sense of identity are linked quite tightly. If i want to be like my mom, I have to share in some of her fundamental beliefs that comprise who she is.

Sure.  Though it's unclear what fairy tale beliefs are fundamental to some other positively valued concept, or even how they would be so.  

If you wanted to be like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Neil Tyson, Dennett, Hume etc.. if they exists as model you seek to emulate, then it shouldn’t be surprising why this would make your more susceptible to being an atheist than a theist. You’re not going to find many theists who idolize such figures, the way many atheists do.

: shrugs :  

I've never been a theist.  I think that this might be an issue of believers trying to find idols such as those idols they themselves worship?  

The image of secular humanism to me, is some bourgeois white man in an ivory tower, uttering cringey platitudes, patting each other on the back. There’s none I view as models or aspirations, and none that would ever inspire me to join a humanist gathering.

Your image of secular humanism is thoroughly inaccurate.  That you arrive at inaccurate conclusions by starting with an inaccurate premise is hardly surprising..but it's a common habit of the religious...so...seems like another con.  

If there is anything appealing to me about secular views, it would be nihilism and cynicism, and not the dewey eyed optimism of humanism. If I were to ever become an atheists, the last thing I would ever be is a humanist.

That has nothing to do with secularism, you're only indicating that nihilism and cynicism are already appealing to you..as a religious person.  That, if you lost your faith, you'd become a complete dirtbag. Well, as before, that only indicates that you already are. Religious beliefs seem to have been incapable of improving you in this regard.

The disgust alone would keep me quite far from it.

Case in point. What value or fundamental belief of your mothers leads you to present yourself as you do on these boards, or to make the statements you post?