Why religion?

I’m an atheist. A hard core non-believer.
Religion grew out of Mankind’s increasing self-awareness and a feeling that somehow we were just too significant for our life to end with our death. Hard to say when it began, but Neanderthals showed reverence for their dead and ancient Egyptians (and not only the Pharaohs) went to extraordinary lengths to provide for their afterlife.
Religions are now firmly rooted in almost every culture and all without a shred of evidence for an afterlife. Most are based on a magical mystical unexplainable appearance of rarely seen “entities” issuing orders on how to behave from now on. In much the same way, the conquering general rides into town, climbs the town hall steps and tells you how it will be from now on.
I object to this nonsense because basically it relieves many from the need to think for themselves. Because of that, I see religions as being anti-human rather than humanist.
In my world, I have no doubt about my “afterlife”: worm fodder, dust to dust, and no soul or spirit to go to some nonexistent place.
I am not religious, but I manage to behave in a moral way with constant concern for the well being of my fellows. I wonder what we could achieve as humans if we all dumped these old-fashioned, unproven and very strange religious beliefs and began to think for ourselves.

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