This is the best I can figure on the matter, @Mandeblind: Without religion, humans would be like robots or insects.
That is, Religion is no more than the diversity of beliefs possible about the universe and about how people ought to act in it. Some people believe in a God. Some people believe in aliens. Some people believe in hell. Some people believe in chaos. Some don’t eat meat, some won’t ever put a leash on their child, some will vote red.
Cockroaches just don’t seem to have the capacity for as great a diversity of beliefs about the universe as our species is capable of. That’s why they only seem to have one religion compared to ours, the religion of being gross! As long as you’re gross and disgusting, you classify in the cockroach church.
Us on the other hand, we have a million different religions because we just have so many things to think about, get confused by, and discuss. There’s so many options without a clear path that we end up often not choosing the same ones and each of us being fairly confident that we’re taking the best possible path.. and frankly, we wouldn’t want to do what some of those other people are doing.. after all, they don’t know what we know, right?
I think morals are the complex product of reason that takes into account all of what we believe is real in the Universe. I think the growth and popularization of sets of morals between groups of people eventually make them distinct from one another. So we start labeling them: christian, muslim, humanist.. etc..
That labeling is a byproduct of an already necessary system. So,.. I really don’t think morality and religion can be separated.