Xena, Your Spirit concept sounds something like my 'Life Force' idea, since both try to provide some meaning to the cosmic unknowns of 'why are we here', 'where did we come from', etc. For most individual people, religion and spirituallity provide meaning and hope, so that's what keeps it so popular.
But I'd say religion's main role is more practical ---> to provide the behavioral rules required for civilization itself to exist. More specifically, it provides humans with the missing behavioral inhibitors against deadly intra-species violence. Predator species like lions and tigers have built in instinctive inhibitors to ensure their dominance rituals don't end up in death. Since humans don't have deadly teeth or claws, we also lack this instinctive inhibitor, so it has to come from external sources like religion, law, etc. Without this inhibition, a species would destroy itself during its mating rituals, territorial disputes, etc. These 'dominance rituals' are hard wired into all living things as a quality control mechanism to ensure only the fittest survive and proliferate. Zoologist Desmond Morris has discussed this in his book 'The Naked Ape'.
Historically, religion can also be used to bolster the authority of rulers / leaders ('divine right of kings', 'manifest destiny', etc), so that is an additional motivation for organized relgion.
But for people, the main desire is for some meaning and hope, so religion and spirituality will always be in demand.
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