One of the people I met at the Humanst conference was Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist. His post on the question, do tragic events shape your religious views, got a number of thoughtful reposonses.
Before 9/11, I was more favorable to religion. They may have contained false beliefs, but they also taught children discipline, and helped rehabilitate criminals. Post 9/11, I’m more concerned about the downside of apocalyptic violence than the upside of teaching discipline.
Of course, it should be possible to teach children discipline without religion, but in practice, leaving this task to the public schools doesn’t work so well.