Is religion important in people's lives?

I think it depends upon the person. Often religions teach you respect for yourself and others which can be good. If you growing up thinking it doesn't matter what happens to anyone but you this always causes problems in people's lives, especially teen age boys and men but also in women's lives too.

So, if religion causes people to respect the lives of others this is good too.

But, being too fundamentalist in any religion or even a fundamentalist racist or even fundamentalist Racist Atheist causes many many problems around the world in people's lives.

So, I think it is the Greek Saying "Moderation in all things" (including religion) best to keep all civilizations and lives functioning well.

One of the best things I did was to get interested in Comparative Religion in College. This was fairly easy simply because I had a friend getting a master's degree in History of Religion specializing in Buddhism and Sanskrit at UCLA. So, I learned a lot about comparative religion during this time.

Comparative religion led me to cultural Anthropology which also showed me how all religions started out as shamanic religions before and during when people started growing crops and switching over from hunter Gatherers to Farmers and city dwellers and nation builders.

So, what religion actually is for me changed during these studies of the actual History of Religion.

Especially, learning more about how Kings and Queens made slaves of people through religions worldwide.

This really changed how I saw religion completely and so it became a warfare a psychological warfare of Kings and Queens worldwide enslaving their people through religion more than anything else.

This really started turning me against organized religion in general no matter what it was when I studied about all this.

However, even though I'm very suspicious in many ways about all religions now I still believe in having a personal relationship with God and Jesus and Mother Mary and Archangel Michael. However, my studies in comparative religion sort of ended my love for organized religion of any kind.

However, despite all this religions tend to civilize people in the main and keep them from killing each other unless they are fundamentalists who have to kill anyone from another religion.