Does the world need religion, even if it doesn't need God?

[Minimalist]

Chuck is quite right. Edward Gibbons: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/vol...p2.htm#PHI

Universal spirit of toleration.
I. The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.