A world without religion

I was having a casual chat over the phone with my friend one day and somehow that discussion got into the relevance of caste and religion. Do we require religion? I know that non-believers in God will definitely answer in the negative. However, I wonder why believers in God should answer in the affirmative. If God is a creator and if he does not have a beginning or an end then, why do we require religion to keep Him alive? Do I need to be a Hindu to believe in Lord Krishna and to read the Bhagwad Gita? Does someone else have to be a Christian in order to worship Jesus Christ and to read the bible? I am not against temples and churches. They may exist but do we need to have a tag associated with us to differentiate us. Even our governments want us to have a religion associated with our identity. Especially in India we let the caste factor to play a big role in our identity too. I do not understand how we can eradicate the caste system when even our governments want to distinguish us...