@blitzdriver @spectre community and shared values are the primary benefit of religion. Whether or not a book is literally true or if this or that historical event happened or not is actually wholly irrelevant.
You can take a jewish cult that pushes slave morality and after injecting enough Roman culture, make it halfway decent.
Religion is like money. It's useful even if you don't like it, but you can fuck it up by being stupid at the same time.