I have a very different perspective. I see religion as a psychological and social phenomenon, and I don't think those are actually driven by some hypothetical "if the mythology were real" that's encoded in the holy books. To start, people don't read the holy books much so their contents can't be very relevant to what's going on inside religious people's heads. And also when people do read them they all see different things -- reinforcing whatever they already believed. Give the bible to a pro-LGBT Christian and regarding homosexuality they'll see "love everyone" while an anti-LGBT Christian sees "abomination". I've got no reason to imagine there's some "true meaning" underneath, it's just a jumble of old fairy tales that went through a historical blender. Anyway I think you'd understand the religion better if you don't read the holy books, and instead focus on the psychology of the believers.