All religions have it’s own myths, own stories, own set of values. And these are/were good stories, I mean, even though they are not true, they are certainly interesting. You won’t feel bored by it.
Harry Potter has the same effect on people, like, why should I take Harry Potter seriously, why do I care what happens after Dumbledore dances with Snape (won’t give actual spoilers :')
I mean, it doesn’t make sense to me. Why do I care so much about a soap opera that I am watching. Harry Potter is the product of just one brilliant woman’s imagination. It has no real value on my life. I have no real motivation to read that other than the fact that I like it and I want to know. Harry Potter is somewhat irrelevant to my life, than why does it or any other good story capture our imagination?
Why do I care what the next season of House M.D. entails? Why? What should I care if he dies or lives? Why :')?
Adding to consumerist attachment, these days stories are also used as an escapism tool. From a fatalistic point of view, you can lose yourself in a movie for a little while, binge a series, read a book and be somewhere totally different than where you are. You can believe that for a while if the story is good enough.
There’s also the appeal of “living vicariously” through a story. I tend to enjoy stories with more focus on characters and their development, and inevitably get invested in them from the simple connection of being human. I can see the ugly side of myself within flawed characters, I can learn lessons from the mistakes of others, I can take comfort in certain emotional developments and despair in others. Stories provide a safe place to explore different points of view, ideas, emotions, and events, especially ones people don’t talk about day to day or ones that are darker than your every day life.