You're wrong. This is the perfect way of controlling the majority of the population. In the past the times were often very tough, and the weak needed something to keep them going. Hope is the main thing that drives the majority even today. Introducing the religion concept helped control and keep most of the religious population at peace.
Atheists are the ones that are thinking for themselves. I'm pretty sure that the majority of people that are 'awake' and see the flaws in the current system (e.g. NSA anyone?) are either agnostic or atheist.
Atheists however aren't that many in numbers compared to Christianity for example. There is no exact number but you can check it out for yourself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism
As a religion people, I keep my faith and pray to God to calming and strengthen my self when I got problem. I always giving thanks to God when I was blessed and got luck in my life. I think your opinion is not wrong, because every person has different perception about that. Other people used religion to control population, but for me, I used that to control myself.
