I think I'd rather have efficient police and courts than just try to make people believe that crime doesn't pay. Once you can catch criminals, it's certainly worth advertising that you do it, though: in the UK, I think I'm right in saying that fear of crime is out of proportion to its incidence. I don't think saying "crime doesn't pay" is a lie in the sense that I'm talking about, because I genuinely don't believe that crime is in people's long term interest.

I didn't say all religion was lies, in fact, I gave an example of one which I thought was OK (I'm not a Buddhist, but I know some). Nor do I think that there is no truth or value in religion. Rather, the claims which are unique to the big theisms (rather than being stuff that non-theists could have told you, like "don't murder people") are very probably wrong, because, for example, they portray God as speaking, caring and intervening in a way that he doesn't.

There might be a form of religion which was divinely inspired, but neither of us seem to know which one it is, so that possibility can't make any difference to our lives until we find out. So, I'm not sure where the religion that a society needs is going to come from: do you propose to create one, or try to find the one that is true, if it exists?