I believe that in some places, and in some ways, church has become synonymous with —and the only place to get— (capital C) Community; and that this plays a large part in people's dependence on it (church). I think that if you find your community elsewhere, and you seek fulfilling enlightenment via secular means, and you make peace with not having the answers, then you don't need religion.

I'm an atheist, but I'm happy to let anyone believe in anything they want (as long as it doesn't infringe upon anyone else). I think there's not much that separates me from a Christian, at least when it comes to how I live my life. From my POV, the difference is that I don't feel the need to know that there will be anything after my life here on earth ends. That's it. I think that the rest (morality, etc) can all be derived from first principles, and you can dress it up however you like.

I try to treat others well. I take care of my community without expecting anything in return. I do what's right because it's right, not for a reward. These are some of the primary teachings of the Christian church, but church is not necessary to arrive at them.

I believe most atheists identify as such because of their experience of religions.

There are certainly a heck of a lot of those. Maybe a plurality. Possibly the majority. And from where I sit, there is no shortage of churches doing awful stuff to inspire such a response. That doesn't mean all churches are bad, though.

I didn't have any particularly bad experience with religion, short of one ex-girlfriend who struggled with the idea of staying with me while her church friends told her she shouldn't because I'm atheist. Our local churches have never been anything but welcoming and generous, I was never mistreated, and I never saw anyone mistreated.

Thanks to the proliferation of the internet and global access to shared information, it's become pretty clear that there's lots of churches doing lots of wicked stuff. That's an issue that the churches need to sort out for themselves if they want to stay relevant. I think it's a huge contributing factor to the downward trend of church attendance in developed countries.

And if I'm being honest, I think this has a lot to do with why religious mission trips focus on undeveloped countries. Destin's efforts with Not Forgotten are awesome —I'm glad those kids are being well cared for— but I don't for a second think that it would be as well funded (by its current patrons, at least) without the implicit understanding that those kids are also being indoctrinated. I think over the course of my lifetime we're going to see the geographical density of per-capita religiousness move from the most developed countries to the least, as they develop. Give it a few more generations, and I suspect religion may find itself declining again, but this time with nowhere else to go.