Religions are a lot like fandoms. They serve virtually the same purposes: they provide community by giving an engaging story and characters to bond over, they provide sets of morals and rituals, they provide symbols and codes for identity. And those things are great, and important.
Fandoms are more honest, though. They don't try to dominate over your life, and they don't try to replace your reality by pretending that the story in question has actually happened in our actual world.
We know it's all fake. And it helps to keep it in check.