Spiritual Experience as the Origin and Goal of Religion

Why do religions begin and why are people religious?

Theologian Rudolf Otto proposed that the origin of religion lies in the spiritual experiences that one person has. This person then becomes the founder of a religion based on such experience and any revealed knowledge that might come with it. 

Other people might have then followed what that one person did and thus have their own experiences... In fact, in every generation, in every religion, it seems there are people who do have religious/spiritual experiences following one or another religion and then inspire other people through the knowledge or even miracles that occur as a result of these experiences. Mind you, these people might be in the minority (especially in the general public). But, at least amongst people who do follow and practice a religion, they do witness people who have had these experiences and some may even have such experience themselves.

But I can see how it would be difficult for someone who had never had such an experience or known someone who had, to accept religion based on word-of-mouth from hundreds or thousands of years ago. When I was not religious, I did reason that, "if so many people (the vast majority of humanity still in this day) believe these things and have carried them on for so long, there must be something to it." Maybe not 100% as they say, but still, something of value to not ignore.

But then, in the end, it did take my own spiritual experience before I became "religious".  I do believe that spiritual experience can be the motivation for religion: it is either the inspiration for a new religion to develop (based on the experience and teachings of the founder) or at least the desire to have such an experience that motivates others to pursue religion. Such experience is both the initial trigger for religion as well as the ultimate goal individuals have to follow religion. (there are other reasons people follow religions, but many are not very deep nor virtuous).