Feral children deprived of language develop their own forms of communication and it may be that societies deprived of religion develop their own belief systems. Religion is, at its core, a means of explaining the world and it becomes absurdly easy for science to slip into the habits of religion.
To break down religion to its essence is to say that there is a creative force which has given us life and that the proper way to live is to be in harmony with this creative force. Sinfulness consists of acts which disrupt the life-giving activity of the creative force creating a disharmony which manifests itself in destructive events around us. These destructive events may build to an apocalyptic crescendo that will separate the faithful from the infidels and transform our way of life to a purely harmonious one.
