Religion is in place in this world because humans need something to provide them with forgiveness for what they see is their inability to live up to what they were ment to be. Humans need to believe that a higher power looks on them with favor inspite of them not living up to their true potential.
Religion is also in place to provide people with a way to explain things they don't understand. If something happens that is beyond the scope of the viewers the first reaction is to try to explain it in a way that will make it seem less mysterious or disturbing.
Many things that early people described as devine intervention are now explainable by science. Just because something happens that is unexplainable at that time does not mean it was perpetrated by a higher power. All it means is that we don't have the ability to explain it at that time.
The religious doctorine distributed by religious people hasn't always been written down. I've seen from experience how much verbal stories can change when exchanged from person to person. Things get exaggerated, facts are forgotten or altered. If you would like proof try playing "Telephone". The message you get back is usually pretty garbled. If this is true of today, how am I to believe that the religous tales were remembered accurately for many years before being written down.