What a weird take. Religions ability to influence behaviour works because of our lizard brain, not despite it.
The idea of God judging people from afar is an extension of the important humans place on social conformity. We are hard wired to care about what other people think of us. If you remove the religious decorarions then that underlying trait still exists.
// Religions ability to influence behaviour works because of our lizard brain
Totally not my experience. My lizard brain doesn't want to keep the Sabbath, or spend an hour at the temple, or to donate a lot (or anything) to charity, it doesn't really want to bother raising my kids a certain way, or to be discriminant in my diet, sexual behavior, etc.
It is my higher-level self that sees the elevating function of these things and struggles to override my lizard brain for daily control. When it succeeds, it's glorious. When it fails, I am still happy to have fought.
I don't see this as evidence of the contrary. Church attenders want to fit in with their peers at the church who are all doing the same thing. This is why there are so many hundreds of Christian sects, they are all trying to follow their local church's interpretation of the Bible. Individuals who read the Bible and come to even slightly different conclusions get kicked out of that church, so there is little incentive to read and think for one's self. Everyone is expected to read and come the same conclusions as their local leadership, or they will be browbeat and excommunicated.
You have a greatly simplified understanding of what religion is and how it operates. Many religions, for instance, encourage people to act against social norms. Also, strange that you would characterize conformity as an artifact of our lizard brains. Reptiles are not generally noted for being highly social creatures. Conformity seems like it'd be situated closer to what makes us human than what makes us animal-like.
The idea of God judging people from afar is an extension of the important humans place on social conformity. We are hard wired to care about what other people think of us. If you remove the religious decorarions then that underlying trait still exists.