"There is a HUGE difference between superstitious belief and spirituality. While superstitious beliefs can indeed manifest themselves through spirituality, and in fact, are the result of spirituality to some degree, they do not define human spirituality. They are compelling evidence that humans do spiritually connect to something, which causes such beliefs. This is not to say their beliefs are validated, but the reason they exist is human spirituality.
You mentioned the Aztecs, and we could mention all kinds of ancient cultures we've discovered around the world, and how they practiced human spirituality. Does it not seem the least bit curious to you, that we find evidence of human spirituality everywhere, when humans had no perceivable knowledge of other cultures? Isn't it strange they all had these similar rituals of worshiping something greater than self, yet had no awareness of other cultures doing the same thing elsewhere? How can you rationally explain this? Well, I suppose we could imagine that all humans came from the same place, and simply carried this practice with them to various lands, but then... what does that tell us about this attribute? Cultures, customs, beliefs, all changed, but what remained above and beyond anything else, was the human spiritual connection... spirituality. Important? Not important? What does the rational mind tell us?
Now, superstitions do often find their way into religions, which are manifestations of human spirituality. I don't profess to know a lot about Christianity, but I believe the message brought by Jesus to the followers of Christianity, specifically dispelled a lot of superstitious beliefs which had been incorporated into the Jewish religion. But again, my point is simple, even what you interpret as superstitious, is evidence of human spiritual connection. That's the important detail you need to take away here. Regardless of the validity of beliefs in specific, they all entail a strong human spiritual connection to something. That is a fact that is hard to dispute. "
No, I am not curious as to why mankind universally creates gods. Man need to find a reason for the randomness of life. Why does that one die, and that one live? There must be something that causes us to thrive, while they starve. The planets move in predictable patterns, Therefore, some superior force controls them. All the acncient religions focused on astrology, from the druids to the azteks, to the Egyptions. One must make sense of a random world, in which seemly unfair things happen all the time. That is why almost half the nation still believes the the JFK killing was a conspiracy. Man can not accept that the most powerful man in the world was brought down by a twentysomething year old loser with a $10 rifle.
I used to live in Vegas. I played blackjack a lot, just for entertainment. Everyone in Vegas believes that there are hidden patterns to random events. Even I began to believe after about three years that I would always win on the hand following being delt a natural blackjack, and that I would lose on the hand following a "push". I sat at a table one night where a woman would get out of her chair, and flap her arms and cluck like a chicken, every time she was delt a blackjack, because she believed it was "good luck". The azteks needed a god who would bring them victories over their enemies. They were not about to leave that up to chance, so they created one, and sacraficed victims to him. The superstition stopped being a superstition, and became a religion. Then the preisthood class was formed. They had an inside track, because they could predict the longest day of the year and the shortest day of the year, as well as comets. Obviously, only people who can speak to gods can do this. My grandmother believed that if she had to walk to the bus stop tomorrow, all she had to do was to pray that it would not rain the night before. She eventually got to the state of mind that she did not recall the failures in her prayers, only the sucesses. The same thing is true of gamblers in Vegas. They will tell you about the $6,000 jackpot they won, but fail to remember the $7,000 they lost in the preceeding 2 months.
I am not going to convice you that there is no spirituality, or god, just as I could not convice the Catholic church that the pope is not infalable. The truth is that there are some of us who can live with the randomness and unfairness of life, while most people simply can't handle it, and choose to believe that it is all an ordered universe and that god simply works in mysterious ways.