In my opinion, religion was born out of the "bicameral mind" theory.  Essentially, we humans created God in our minds in order to feel that we have a set purpose on this earth.  In this instance, God is simply our inner conscious that arose out from the same evolution that gave us consciousness.

I'm not an athiest.  I believe there is a God that "coded" our universe.  Science and math and the laws that govern our physical universe had to be put into place by something.  That being said, I do not conform to any religion. 

Religion has done great things in terms of teaching morality, however, it has also brought a ton of pain and suffering (i.e. The Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, conflict in the Middle East).

I seek to find God in terms of our world.  I like to think that any scientist/creator has a hypothesis for their creation, but not a set "plan."  Thus, our purpose on this earth should simply be to do whatever we can to grow life and advanced consciousness.  By diversifying our species (who, by our definition, has the highest level of consciousness), we give life the best odds to survive. 

Let's colonize the universe with consciousness.

In terms of evolution:

The first "chicken" to hatch from an egg would have to be genetically different from its mother.  The mother, therefore was not genetically a chicken when it laid the chicken egg.  The first "chicken" had to come from its egg.  Thus, the egg came before the chicken.  QED.