The practical purpose of organized religion may be hatred. That only shows their hypocrisy. If they followed their scriptures, then every religion comes down to some bloke saying we should respect each other on an equal basis and a clergy using that to say why they have the only correct interpretation, so all believers in any other variation should be exempted from that universal respect and human equality that their founder mandated. It's true of political parties and other pressure groups too - they all start off liberal and then factions develop them to suit themselves and suppress what they really taught. It's even true of modern pagans and Wiccans, all fragmented into sects in the space of some 40 years with far less tolerance for each other than for other religions.

"The idea that you can buy anything has replaced the notion that you are perfectly free to create anything or that you are perfectly free to change the world"
Stew Albert, political activist (1939-2006)