I woulda hoped to see more trees in this advanced version of reality .

So would I, but I didn't draw it.

I don't think worship or superstitious fear is ' a religion " until its developed an organized hierarchy of humans to enforce its dictates , at least not a modern religion ?
Once a ' religion' exist only as an enforced or coerced mandate upon humans by other humans , then it can't be considered a natural phenomenon as it doesnt arise naturally but is manufactured .

Yeah , idk iif theres any logical conclusions possible about ' what might have happened otherwise ' .
Hafta think on that tomorrow .

Hmmmm...I don't think the word ' they ' could be rightly used to include everyone through all periods of history !
I think it might be rightly more inclusive the further back in time we ponder , to when there were only small scale tribal chiefs and no kings ...
But once Large scale Kings and kingships arrived on the scene ,, then I think it was the Kings who made gods to be a mandatory social proposition as a means of being able to allow his peasants to blame someone other than himself for their misfortunes ?

I think there was much less voluntary compliance with religiion as a generally personal existential coping mechanism .
I think it was moreso imposed upon conquered cultures by armies and slave masters with whips like american plantation slaves were converted .

@Scottzillyun Hunter-gatherer era religion was inherently more personal to tribal level, as it was generally some form of animism or ancestor worship that didn't lend itself to lots of universal structural elements like dogma / doctrine and holy books. As it evolved into polytheism and monotheism, it became easier for governments to manipulate and use in various ways, as you point out.

To the point of the OP, I think religion arose organically and arguably was needed; I simply think it has largely outgrown its usefulness and relevance and is starting to fade in importance. The open question is how rapidly and completely that will happen.