Well, those are excuses, I think. But, whatever makes someone happy is okay with me as long as they don't try to push it on me.

If you're a member of a church, you end up making close friends that all have a common bond (invisible friend in sky). There aren't many places that can compete, because of the whole promise of paradise/threat of hell angle. It makes people think they are right, because of the constant surrounding yourself with other likeminded folks.
Of course there's the down side of believing lies, and hating those different from you.

I know it saves people who get messed up on drugs or in prison etc.

There is no positive benifit of religion that cannot also be found in the secular community. Not a single thing. The secular community however doesn't come with the draw back of being a cult.

I'm not sure there is a bright side of religion. Religion picks people who may or may not have been "enlightened," and elevates them in such a way that they cannot be questioned and freezes in time to when that particular religion was created. So as time moves on, knowledge increases, religion takes the knowledge and new awareness of our universe and vilifies it, creating a "moral crisis..." in essence what we're experiencing now.

I think religion is an example of how the human mind seeks to control the world around it, and if there wasn't such a thing as religion, there would be something else. But we're finally at the place where we can see it for what it is, and, hopefully, evolve past it. But this evolution has to happen on "purpose."

My bright side of Judaism was the cultural and cuisine.

Jewish food that my grandmother would make-kreplah, knishes, chopped liver (I can make now)
Jewish holidays centered around food, Channukah (potato latkes) Purim (hamonteshen) and Passover(matzoh ball soup-canadela).

You mean there's a 'Bright Side?'
I suppose the 'bright side' for Atheists like myself is that we Atheists get to debate Reality against Fantasy.

I think the most positive thing religion provides is a sense of belonging and community.

As animals we evolved in groups or as Herd animals" because groups provide protection and increase chances of survival. The "need" to belong is hard wired into almost everyone to barying degrees, and is an instinctual animal drive for most. Belonging to a grtoup makes peopel feel safe, even if they don't really understand why.

In modern society, where nobody knows their neighbors, religion provide a sense of community and belonging, even if at the cost of critical thinking and rational thought.

I think whose who have the greatest doubts, or are secretly livign lives that dont' agree with their religion , are generally the most outspoken, as they are trying to convince everyone, soemtiems even themselves, that they do indeed belong and they are loud and demostrative to remove any doubts others may have about them. Or they may just be trying to make up for their knowing that they dont' really fit well into their religion. (I have a brother who is like this).

It is not for me to say what others should do. Should is a superstition and I try to eject all superstitions from my thinking.

None of those are bright sides to me.

1. To paraphrase Norman Mailer, we humans too often constantly seek pleasure and try everything possible to avoid pain -- going to extremes like opiates and false ideologies to do so. In so doing we cheat the heart out of life. Pain is hard, but it is a part of life and, if we deal with it well -- , it makes life more.

2. We don't need false ideologies which keep people in their comfort zones. We need viewpoints which challenge people and make them think for themselves.

3. The last damned thing in the world we need is an authoritarian, demagogic, self-serving elite telling us what to do.

These are NOT "bright sides." They are curses on the human condition!!!