My immediate family, whilst mainly being Christian (damned if I know what kind), has always been open minded to many issues, opinions, and views. So Aside from when I was too young to really choose for myself (around five ish), I've always had the choice if I wanted to partake in religion or not. Having no love for what I felt to be tedious religious work, I became an agnostic early on in life, gravitating more towards atheism as I've grown older. I don't really care what religion a person has; don't shove things down my throat and I'll return the favor.
Does religion impact society? Yes.
Does it do so negatively or positively? Depends on the when and where. A few hundred years ago I'd say religion benefited society. Today? Not so much. At least in America religion has served as a means of denying people their basic rights on the grounds of "My book says this is immoral so you can't do that". This ranges from discrimination against homosexuals to discrimination against middle easterns/Arabic-Americans simply because they may not have the same religion as you. I dunno, this is a touchy subject but I find religion to cause a lot more problems than I see it solve lately.
Theres a reason religion and politics tend to be taboo subjects in peaceful communities; too easy to cause strife and offend.