religion is not a bad thing , human weakness is a problem ( and exploitation of it by Evil) , put some thought here , why religion got a bad name

https://medium.com/illumination/jesus-is-sad-and-ashamed-926b0dc2b1a3

I guess what you are saying mostly; is human progress should be ethically driven or it needs morality first approach, if every body start to think like that problem solved, but world does not work like that People have weakness of greed , lust to acquire power , ego , selfishness of that I am always right and than they attract each other and made a formidable block .

Now how much good ideas we each have, we mostly live in a liberal world , and its hard to unite people because every body has its own truth and we do not agree with each other , let alone fighting and stopping the bad guys.

Here religion comes in and appeal to human consciousness , to aware that each of us is to return and give account of what injustice we committed on this world ( to others and ourselves) , we will be asked of each resources we consumed or misuse ; then it motivate us to fight against Evil and stop it.

religion, bind us to past and give objective for future and aware us of present; ( not saying religious people has no problem, especially Muslims has lot of problem , because they had a message which is preserved, and appeal to their higher self and they have a history and culture of showing and giving a lot back to civilization but are the most weak and live with a slave mindset)

So religion ask one to stop doing certain things ( alcohol , sex, gambling, ..) , make you discipline by worship, fasting , encourage you to take care of elders, parents, society; make aware that your acts are recorded and you will be judged based of that ; and than ask you to unite and fight against your evil self and society at large else the bad guys will win.

i guess will leave you with a question if not religion , than how you are going to defeat this group of Evil forces who put only money and power in front as objective truth and use all their power to confuse people in seeking out truth and attaining higher objective of self and betterment of society, and keep fighting unlimited war (which also create hunger and suffering for people and nature)

But good luck with your journey !!