I think both are true. Religion may be wrong, but it is appealing otherwise no one would be religious at all - An idea only prevails if it provides some sort of positive feeling for its participants. I think that explaining mysteries and coping with death are the biggest reasons - When people accept that when they die that's it, there's little reason to believe in god - This is true if you consider that the strongest argument for an afterlife is that "It is so horrible to think it doesn't exist that we should just believe it does"
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
