I can only speak for myself as one Atheist.
I am very thankful and indebted to religion, without it the early times of civilization would have been kayos and anarchie.
I am glad you brought this up, Religion in my view was the law and government of early civilizations. They created such a dynamic and powerful Governing entity (Religion) that it still governs many civilizations to this day.
Their only mistake in my opinion is they made it stagnate (without change) not allowing for change to meet the future needs of the followers and change with increased knowledge of man.
It is my understanding that you are a scientist. Does it not seem that all the laws of physics have stagnated then. they have not changed in Billions of years. Perhaps, we live with them and adapt our lives to them and use them to our benefit. Perhaps, one day we will all learn that the Laws of Allah(swt) are still the laws of Allah(swt), be it called religion or physics.
It is like an automobile.
The model T Ford was a great car. It was better than any horse and buggy could ever be. Yet if Henry Ford refused to change his product to make it better there would be no Ford automobiles today.
The car concept did not change. We just learned how to live with the most efficient method of living with it. a car is basicaly a means of getting people from point A to point B. It is still the same.
Religion exists to this day because it uses fear and faith for its survival. These are two of the strongest human emotions. This is good evidence that the creators of Religious faith were very intelligent, this is a good example of the wise mans ability to control the man of brute force.
Force and fear is a very poor ineffective method of controlling people. If people were religious for either of those reasons religion never would have lasted. Look at how rapidly governments get overthrow, when that is the means of keeping the populace under control. for religion to last, there has to be sufficient people experiencing the benefit of it, for it to be passed on from generation to generation. Look at how fast the pagan beliefs have come and gone. The Abrahamic beliefs (Jew, Christian, Islam) have existed since recorded history. Judaism was very strong. When the people lost the idea Allah(swt) sent Isa(pbuh) to restore it. When Christianity lost the path it was restored through Mohammad(pbuh). Islam has remained unchanged since the begining of mankind. there has never been any compulsion involved, except during misguided episodic times when people attempted to use it to promote their own agendas.
The Atheist