I view religion as simply as a byproduct of culture. I think that it is an emotional and psychological crutch that people use to give reason to their lives, a reason to be good, and a reason to be relieved from the pointlessness of being mortal.

I view religion as being something that it useful for a number of people, but that it is unnecessary. I think that all of the feelings that you can experience in a religion, you can experience in an atheist way of life. I also think that the evidence of religious belief is not very strong, but that's not what I want to discuss here. What I want to discuss is the fact that there is nothing in religion that cannot be felt by an Atheist. There may be no objective reason to do anything, but that doesn't bother most of us. A subjective reason, is better than no reason. Here are some common positive things said about religion.

1. Religion gives purpose:

I personally believe that it is ultimately up to the person who asks "Why am I here" to answer his/her own question. Why are you here? To be a loving father? To cure cancer? To be a teacher? To do nothing? I ultimately cannot tell you the ultimate purpose, because I do not know the ultimate purpose. I think there isn't one. So we have to give our lives a purpose. It may be subjective and it may not be everlasting, but a purpose that is small is still a purpose.

2. Religion teaches you to cherish your neighbor.

Perhaps it does. But this was something that was being taught before Christianity. Buddhism was teaching it, I believe. So whether or not Buddhism (which I'm not entirely sure is a religion or not) influenced Christianity is not really relevant, as the idea that we should treat people with respect and virtue seems to be an idea that was floating around and found its way into spiritual beliefs.

3. Religion provides hope:

This is one of the things that religions hold over atheism.  If you're an atheist, what hope do you have? What can you hope for? I think this goes back to #1. I know that when I have children I will hope that they live healthy lives. When I make a donation to charity, I hope that it will feed some mouths. When I aid a person on the street, I hope that there lives are a little better because someone came to help. When I die, I hope that the human race will find a way to defeat hate, heal the sick and starved, fix the economy and environment, and make the most of our dear planet, who's time is finite.

4. Religion teaches morality:

I think religion, poets, and artists romanticized morality into it is necessary not only to not kill, but to, instead, cherist the person and love them. I think this would have happened without religion. I think that we would have those people, like poets, like artists, who would have taught the reason to love and be virtuous without the aid of religion. I do not know this as a fact, and perhaps you might call it faith, but it is faith in humanity, and not the supernatural.

To quote Christopher Hitchens:

"Is there anybody who would wish to challenge me?"