No matter how ridculous the situation, how foolish the teachings, how inconcievable the tale is, mankind can make it into a religion. Notice this? Take Christianity for example; we have a 'savior' born thousands of years ago in a continent on the other side of the world. This man lived a pure life, never falling in to the temptations we face every single day. He called himself God and was crucified. He comes back from te dead and now lives in heaven and all we hve to do to get there is believe in him. We don't know anything about Jesus. We have the Bible, but that has been passed down for centuries and I don't consider it a prized source of information. And yet, with so many glitches and fall-throughs, this is still one of the major religions on the planet. It conquered Roman mythology, another fucked up belief in itself. Amazing. Then we have Buddhists, who worship a prince that did a good deed several millenia ago. It just...stuns me. It's fine if you believe in organized religion, I'm certainly not putting down on it. It just isn't my bag, baby.
Death is an interesting topic. Think about it; every living thing dies. People don't want to think that maybe there is nothing after death, that they just won't exist. Because, if that's the case, then all their work in life was for nothing. They would be abandoned, tossed away like a too-small shoe. I, for one, like to think that maybe there is nothing at the end. I rather like a simple ending to what I consider a long, complicated story. However, I doubt that to be true. Another theory that I'm fond of is that every night, while you sleep, you stay in the after-life. The only link between yourself and the real world is your living, breathing body. I like to think of death as just a long sleep. It's rather comforting.
Religious symbols and talismans (like the one at the top of the screen, for example. I believe that's from the Necronomicon) are beautiful and haunting in thier own way. I find crucifixes charming and pentagrams beautiful. Everything has it's own power, actual or imagined. Just thought I'd point that out.

IronPsycho hath spoken!