I do think that we evolved to fear the unknown, which is a survival instinct. For a species capable of thinking beyond the instinctual level, there is a strong potential for religion to develop. It is a way of trying to control the unknown and unexplainable in the hope of increasing ones chances of survival. Most things tried don't really work, but confirmation bias leads one to believe otherwise, and so our ancient ancestor patted themselves on the back for their cleverness in figuring out what the god(s) wanted. And of course those said they figured out what the gods wanted gained power in the eyes of their tribes. So religious traditions were created in order to help consolidate that power.

Shrugging off the religiosity is going to be tough. We have 10s of thousands of years of development as a species that have just been turned upside down by tech revolutions.

The herd can't totally abandon mytholgies yet. We're working on it.