I think the heart of religion, the essence of religion that makes it so great and appealing, is positive thinking.
But positive thinking by itself is pretty hard to do since this world can be such a shithole, so people have religion to help focus their minds on positivity.
Positive thoughts can make all the difference in the world. Not just in how you feel, but how others perceive you and even how well your day goes. It's really powerful shit. That's why this year I was resolutionless until now. This year I'm going to be positive and not dwell on negative shit.