Lexicus
Deity
A lot of the comments here seem to me to oversimplify the experience of religious people by presupposing that religion doesn't enrich one's experience of this life, that believers are somehow forgoing something else better that they could be doing with this life on the promise (by the oppressive priestly caste) that if they do that, they will be rewarded with better circumstances in the afterlife.
This is certainly the case for the ascetic strains of various sects, and has been for, what, 3500 years or so? I'm not sure of the earliest example of religious asceticism, it probably predates our earliest evidence of it considerably. Not every religious person is an ascetic, obviously.
Edited to add: i'm mot endorsing the "oppressive priestly caste" line, there is some truth to that but it is a simple appealing story for the New Atheists (rather the way they view religion itself) more than it is true.