I am reading a book called Mr. Pip.
A small half para in that book talks about faith and religion.
I loved it... so here it is (in my words with my some of my beliefs).

Faith is what keeps it all together.
You must have faith... in yourself or in a God or in the Universe
in Something... just ANYTHING !
You need faith so that when things go wrong, you can summon that faith and get going again...

And you need this Faith in a place in you where it is summonable.
Thats not so easy - to have faith at your beck and call.
Enter Religion.
Maybe Religion and its practices are not the villain i have thought them to be. Maybe Religion was built just as a tool for the practice of faith, so that when you reach out to faith - you find it easily.

Religion gives you the book, the prayers, the hymns, the rosaries, the temples and the churches so you can practice having faith...
The faith that a man condemned and crucified to his death can rise again,
The faith that even the gods can come to difficult places in their journey, and when they do need to cross that ocean (without a boat)... the faith that all the universe would come together to make them a road (monkeys and squirrels included).

Maybe religion was made so you may have stories - stories that you listen to all your lives and hopefully come to believe... believe that anything is possible.

Faith keeps it all together but dont dismiss religion.
Maybe it has a purpose... It gives you the practice to summon your faith.