Tithe is still pretty strong. I really like the faith for kills pantheon on higher difficulties, because of how many AI units you can kill. Ill have to play around with others, ive only gotten religions twice so far. Ive found that the extra faith purchase religious buildings gives you a strong incentive to build temples earlier than I would otherwise.
Religion in my experience really requires a commitment to make it good, which can be hard in such a dangerous early and midgame, but once you get a couple temples, it can sustain itself for a while. Theology faith unit purchasing can also be very strong with the right setup.