Some believe that the strength of organized religion is that it controls people
and keeps them in their place; to keep society from chaos.
Organized religion should not be condemned for that prime reason.
I have even heard this said by someone who calls himself an atheist.
I partially agree with them.
Generally religion is used for controlling people rather than a way of
finding truth. However, I say that few people have a need for this
kind of control. The diversity of people (possibly genetic) is large.
However, there are some people that have a need to be controlled.
An organized religious system provides this control and also gives
self-esteem for those people. Indications (church attendance
statistics) are that these people are in the minority. The vast
majority don’t have a need for control, nor the self-esteem
provided by organized religion.
Naturalism and Religious Experience 