any alternative to religion that promises a grand purpose to your life that overrides minor moral quibbles is likely to itself become structurally and functionally similar to religion. (thinking about things like effective altruism or longtermism or people who think an AGI is going to come about any day now)
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in reply to @bethposting's post:
i agree, i think believing things with other people and acting on those beliefs is already the shape of a religion. at least that's what I got from Durkheim... the religious as a practice just seems to refer to the default organizing principle of groups of people.
it is easy to perceive any group as a religious one if one accepts that "religious" beliefs don't need to be explicitly and self-labelled as spiritual. it is, in fact, a common way to Other a group is by focusing on the ways it is "like a religion" or "a cult", because when you see it through that lens any behavior seems uncanny and "outgroup". the reason that it's so easy to do that is because it's not incorrect at all!