How do religion work?

 I am reminded of a father telling "my caste is bigger than god" when asked whether his caste was bigger than his daughter. It is not about caste that I am going to write about, but about religion. Man-made the religion, and religion made the gods. Then, man, religion, and gods together divided the earth. This is the translation of a song in the Malayalam language. How true! Caste and religion stand more important than God. And gods are needed for the survival of religions. T survive the religion, we celebrate our gods' birthdays, arrange festivals, and processions, and invent customs, prayers/ chants. 

If we look, we can see that political organisations are also following the same strategy. Organise events and processions to demonstrate their strength and canvas more people. Jesus, Ram, Krishna, and Mohammad all were real human beings who walked the earth. They were exceptional in their thoughts and actions and had a huge number of followers, no doubt. Even their flaws were praised. 

But when and how did respect and admiration become worship. How does the prayer work? How do these 'once human now gods' grant the wishes the devotees pray for? Or does the universe really conspire when we wish for something intensely?