Our brains find relationships in all sorts of places, some valid, some not (conspiracy theories play to this tendency). If you read a religious text, you will likely 'see' relationships that will form a framework of understanding. It might even inform your decision making. The more you read, the more your brain finds new relationships, the more complex your framework of understanding.
If everyone formed their own frameworks of understanding, there'd be less collaboration but more creativity. Hence institutional religion - the 'super-framework' to which a group's understanding is constrained. Without this, everyone would have their own religion, and they may not align well enough with the state.