the fact is, a lot of religious rules are about making the world better and not murdering each other or stealing their shit. a lot of the rules that make up all religions is good stuff. and sometimes, like circumcising baby boys or the rules of kashrut (kosher), they exist for good reason and get people to have healthier lives and not die because they got sand in their dick or had the black plague pork pie. religions were not made up by the upper classes to keep control of the lower classes; they started as earnest attempts to understand the world and try to make it a better place for everyone in it. but, perhaps more importantly, none of those guidelines require faith in or the existence of god to make them good guidelines, and very little of the good stuff in any religious text actually is specific to or originated in it (the "golden rule" predates christianity considerably, for instance).

GOOD doctrines that come out of religion should be celebrated and learnt from, even as the developed world marches in a roughly secular direction. when we're examining these things philosophically, if we earnestly want to improve our lot in the world and the lot of millions of disadvantaged people, we must examine it from the point of view that religion is there to serve mankind; not the other way around.