The look on my mom's face when I asked her why my son had to be anything (with respect to organized religion) was enlightenment. It had never occurred to her before then that an infant didn't have to be baptized because everyone she knew had been and were also under the impression that they had to.
I know this because SHE TOLD ME what she was thinking at that moment afterwards. So your opinion on what she was thinking is incorrect and irrelevant since we actually know.
This is exactly what we see here in this discussion. Folks seem to have never even considered the prospect that we can be productive, really good, well adjusted, successful people without religion.
I appreciate the discussion. I think you're wrong about this though if you take the 50,000 foot level and consider what can happen across multiple generations. If not religion, you need something akin to it. Our natural instincts tend to be 'evil', but in nature 'good' and 'evil' don't really exist.
(LM - I will definitely pick up the book, looked interesting.)