There has been some interesting research done on the way people write about themselves and it seems that the idea of the individual person didnt really appear in literature at any rate until after the thirteenth century, so maybe we are evolving away from the cohesive group structure.
However the cohesive function of religiuos groups has its downside as well, as Marx wrote, 'Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
However someone has just pointed out that there is a certain irony in quoting Marx and Nietzsche at the same time.