Religion as a hope mechanism

I've thought for a while about the notion of religion being a hope mechanism.  To me, it makes a lot of sense and can be proved well.  In this chapter, Marx also makes this case.  I believe Marx would say that humans create God, rather then God being the human's creator.  In class, we pondered the idea of religion being the soul of a soulless world.  Only for hope.  Although the ethics of these various religions may not be how the world truly is, they provide hope in times of need.  If religion can make some individuals feel better about the universe, I don't it's necessarily a bad thing.  However, I believe it should  be known that it's true purpose is to provide hope.