Carl Jung, once responded when asked if he believed in God stated, "No, I do not believe in God, I know him".....I think if you know him, you'll figure that out.
I'm guessing that, apart from being uses as a political device and a proxy for an internal moral compass for an amoral crowd, the thing that religion tries to "cover over" is man's mortality. It seems that a lot of people are sufficiently egomaniacal to believe in eternal life. They simply refuse to share the fate of road kill or their dinner. And so, there is ceremony, pomp and circumstance to "cover over" man's limited life. The downside is that, while it gives people the foolish hope of a "beyond," it also causes them to not fully appreciate the only lives they are ever going to have, as they are having them.
If it's judgement day and you're standing before anything that looks even remotely like it might be God it's probably best not to argue.