The fact that the theistic religions are false in their view that there is a God does not negate their pragmatic value in a number of realms. Religion offers more than the promise of a deity or even of future salvation. Religion also serves as a guide for moral and ethical behavior, as a balm for those in pain, as a communal experience bringing people together, and so on. While these different functions may be couched in terms of a deity who desires that people behave in a certain way, the value of these behaviors is not dependent on whether or not there really is a deity making this demand. The ethical and moral behaviors are valuable in themselves and could--and indeed have been--offered as precepts by philosophers with no religious intent.
There are a number of different ethical structures with a religious basis, some developed within a religious framework, others adapted from secular philosophy to the needs of a religious community. Christian ethics can be found in different forms as well, and underlying all is the essential view that human beings have free will and so that ethical decisions are valuable. Moral issues can be raised with every action we take in life, and everyone needs some guide to how to make ethical decisions and how to select the proper behavior in a social setting.
Everyone sooner or later will have to cope with the issue of death and dying and with the death of family members. Religion offers a means of succor for those who face this issue and has reassured millions of people about their own role in society and about the meaning of their lives. These are all pragmatic realities which are no less valuable if the underlying insistence on a deity proves wrong. The precepts clearly perform a social role and a social good by helping individuals decide how to live their lives.
In those religions where God is a personal object of worship, salvation typically has to be effected by the deit...