Is religion necessary for hope and goodness?

I watched Sam Harris debate Chris Hedges on youtube the other day. Hedges made a lot of claims about religion that are quite common among apologists. Claims like: Religion is important because humans have a spiritual dimension and we need to believe in transcendence of the human spirit for the sake of happiness and goodness in our lives; the prophets intended religion as a peaceful ongoing conversation with our spiritual side.

The problem with those claims is that they legitimize religious prophets and texts, thus making the state of fundamentalism worse. No matter how much you say that Islam is peace and Muhammad was a liberator, the fundies are still going to attribute terrorism to Islam. Arguing that Muhammad was a good man not only reinforces the fundie's convictions, but also distracts us from the root cause of terrorism.

“The Quran is the direct word of God and we must obey it.” There is nothing metaphorical about that statement. Yet Muhammad said it and enforced it. He preached the Quran as a straightforward preordained manual on how to live. For the average Muslim, the spiritual Sufi is a heretic because he believes the Quran is metaphorical. Muhammad would have agreed. Where is the spirituality in this? If its absent, of what use is Islam? It is not fulfilling any need to believe in the transcendence of the spirit, and it is not making people happy or good.

I can see Hedges countering that by saying religion is not about me, it is about the poor, downtrodden, not very well educated masses. It provides meaning in their lives. However, I think it is condescending to say that the poor and uneducated need fundamental religion because they are incapable of sophisticated thought. In believing that, we neglect our social responsibility for educating and pulling up the poor. Religion is not best tool for hope and goodness. Education, compassion and better public policy are.