Religion tends to keep people from killing others of their own religion

 This is likely the best thing I could say about religions from observing religions my whole life now at 78.

However, Religion also tends to make people (directly or indirectly) kill people of other religions around the world. (THIS IS ALSO TRUE).

So, does this mean religion is good or bad?

I think you have to say that religion is equally good and bad which is how I also feel about marriage. It is both good and bad for those getting married.

However, it helps the children in that they  usually do better in life if they have both parents there ongoing if possible.

So, therefore I tend to see marriage as having the same types of problems as religions to if I think about it deeply about all religions here on earth. 

So, religions are like families: never entirely good but also not usually completely bad.

I think this is generally a realistic assessments of all religions and marriages too.

Sometimes they work and sometimes they kill. Sometimes both equally.

So, my personal solution is to be married to the right person and have a family like I did but I also decided that I had been burned by religions enough between birth and 30 and I needed to have my own experience with God and not having people tell me things to make me give them money so they could survive.

I really don't like how religions scare people into forcing them to giving them all their money.

This might be the worst thing about religion except for the child molestation which we find in all religions too around the world.

So, these two things are universal in all religions no matter how much people try to hide from these self evident truths.