>>Humans are animals who got some shell around. Religion is an important component of this shell. Take it out and the shell may crack down. Most religions teach very simple things: you shall not murder, shall not steal, shall love parents and respect neighbors. Simple as it is, but take it out and they revert to the same animal as it was before Moses wrote it; and if this animal got some knowledge how many snakes were created at any point of geological history, it doesn't make things much better.
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>Take what out? The common rules of civility, or religion?
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>I never had religion, yet I never killed anyone, didn't get into trouble with the law, our kids didn't turn into monsters, and I didn't even commit this fallacy of thinking that "if there's no god, everything is permitted" (qv in "Crime and punishment" by Dostoyevsky).
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>And I don't feel exceptional in any way. I know a lot of people who never had any religion whatsoever and were still civilized, honest, polite.
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>I think you assign too many traits of being civilized to being religious. Religion does not have a monopoly on civilization.

One step at a time, it's a long road.