Belief in "religion" without a belief in God

My thoughts are only half formed on this, which is why this is going to be all over the place.

Religion seems to exist throughout human history and in every human culture. The obvious conclusion to me is therefore that it has value, and that there is something in the human psyche that needs religion.

I think few people would argue with the basic tenets of most religions "be nice to each other and help each other out." On a theoretical level that's great, on a practical level it becomes more difficult. There are too many people needing help and too much else we ourselves have to focus on. The basic "congregation" that you get in a religious context seems to me a good way that humans have developed of identifying who we help out and who we don't.

There is also a utility value in the concept of the "because higher authority X" said so. We do not have absolute truths, science is very much a work in progress. Sometimes we just have to get on with the task in hand, and as a group the human race can be like children, God is the Santa Claus effect writ large. "Because God said so" has proved a thousand times throughout history to work. Yes for evil, but also for good. If Atheists leave the field of religion totally, they leave the "Because it's the right thing to do" field as an open season for others.

The most spectacular buildings and the best works of art humankind have ever produced have been as a result of religion. In some of these cases, God is the inspiration, but the religious organisations have persuaded the entire community to come together to sponsor art and buildings. These days a government allots an amount from tax for new civic amenities, or a single person/company pays for it by themselves. When you study development aid/community regeneration schemes you learn that the first thing you need to make them work is community buy in. Religion (and that basket that gets passed around in mass) have been doing that for thousands of years.

Finally, for this post, religion can act as an interesting alternative power structure. In medieval Europe for instance, kings had vast amounts of power, yet this power was somewhat counter balanced by the church. There were essentially two power structures, the government on a country scale and interwoven with it the church on a continent scale. Each organisation told people what to do, each collected revenues and handed out punishments, each told people how they should behave and where one failed the other was available to highlight its failings and perhaps step into the breach.

I suppose that what I'm getting at is that while I don't believe in God, I can see the point of having him about.