The Purpose of Religion

I've recently been discussing with my friends the actual purpose of religion. Though I am technically Hindu, I can't say that I've researched religions and discovered Hinduism to be most in line with my general attitude about the divine. Over the past few years, I've learned much more about the deities to whom I pray, which has made me more attached and devout; however, as I continue to learn about religion, I am also learning more about science. Surprisingly, religion and science seem to be contradictory, which makes me wonder why we even accept religion if we assume that all science is factual and irrefutable.

One recent survey stated that the more educated people are, the less religious they are. What does this suggest? It proves that religion is used only as an escape, a cathartic experience that has little reason; it is simply an irrational concept that allows humans to maintain some semblance of hope. Our general human nature arguably is that we are selfish and would love to attribute our successes to our intelligence and generally strong work ethic, but when the going gets tough, we suddenly relieve ourselves of our responsibilities and look to other forces - religion - to help us. Typically, when someone is more educated, the more financially successful he/she is (this can be argued, but I'm almost positive that it's true). We, as humans, will attribute such successes to the education we have and the hard work we have put in. There's no reason to believe that other forces helped us because we feel we have put in our due effort and deserve the benefits. I'm not saying I entirely agree with this train of thought, but it is certainly understandable.

Then why is religion so powerful? Are we as humans too weak or vulnerable to accept that we, and only we, can alter the outcome of our lives? It is possible that we feel comfort under the blanket of religion, as it gives us reason to believe that we can slack off or attain success and happiness without exerting ourselves sufficiently. It seems that we as humans (yes, I will generalize for the sake of being thought-provoking) are scared of our abilities, and in fact may find respite in believing that we have obvious limitations. The popularity and acceptance of religion confirms this, as most religions, regardless of practices and actual beliefs, seek to find salvation through external forces.

Having said all of this, there is no way I can say that I don't believe in religion. I will say that I am weak and so would like to believe that there are supernatural beings helping us achieve our goals and live happy lives. Being in the sciences, however, makes it more difficult to accept religion as even remotely reasonable. Then again, I think it's unreasonable to discover truth based solely on objectivity. There is a subjective part of happiness that should be extracted through religion. Frankly, my technical/logical side makes me believe that religion is a socially fabricated structure to help us cope with the difficulties of life, but the irrational/emotional side of me appreciates religion's presence. I guess I'm just confused.