Since Sir Loin asked, here is my take on the matter:
I believe my knowledge of the fact that I am going to die and be no more, that everything I have ever loved or will love will die and be no more, that every great and wise man who has ever lived will die and be no more, that there is likely no divine help or greater purpose to existence, is slowly driving me a little insane.
I believe that if most of the populace knew this and had the I.Q. to think about it long and hard, they might also be facing a slippery slope into madness. I believe that many psychological problems of the inhabitants of Western civilization may be caused by a void in spiritual belief, brought on by the increasingly untenable nature of religion in the face of attack by zealous atheists.
Just in case anyone hasn't thought about it hard enough, death. Wormfood. Corruption of the flesh, ravens and vultures eating the tender parts of you and your lover and your puppy Skip. Or, in today's world, your blood drained and your body pickled to mortify in a sealed box 6 feet under the ground in a way that is quite possibly more disturbing than the natural process.
I believe that religious belief, for all the many, many bad things it has caused, also may have offered some sort of buffer against these realizations to the most of the population most of the time. Thus they have gotten up and worked, and eaten, and fornicated and had children, instead of slipping into depression and just laying down and dying from the weight of horrible realizations.
Of course, the trick is having a religion people believe in without having an unworkable amount of extreme oddities in your religion that make life HERE worse. Skipping meat on Friday is acceptable, "killing the unbeliever wherever you find him" is problematic.
My heart-felt prayer, offered everyday to whatever powers may be, is not for any of the things I or any other man might desire, but simply, to be proven wrong on my skepticism of the supernatural!
Religion is intimately connected with social and monetary control (ruthless power), nothing more, nothing less. That's my viewpoint. I have a scientific approach and it does not bother me one bit that I will one day rot away and return to dust that will spin around this sun until time as we know it ends. We are all part of this celestial body we call Earth, does it really bother you that much that worms (or anything else for that matter) will eat you? I'd be bothered if I'd be alive but since I'd be dead, no.
The one and only type of God or higher being I'd be willing to accept, not as god but as fellow species, would be life from other planets. Let's face it, we have few real answers of the universe. In fact we have more questions than answers, and every new answer raises more questions. So it's anyone's guess really. I'm not ruling out the existence of aliens. Would they visit earth, they could very well be percieved as God(s). I'm not even ruling out the existence of God. It's just that what you "believers" take for evidence, I find is nonsense.
Are you seriously that bothered with life, that you question it? Ever had a gun fired at you? Or a knife stuck in between your shoulder blades? I assume not for life would be a most welcome experience to you if you had lived through such an event. I'm sure, for I have. You would spend less time worrying about it, and enjoy each and every day of your life more than you previously could have imagined. Take nothing for granted, and you will not mourn it's loss, not even your own life. This is what will free your mind and soul. Not money, power, love, or property.
My point is, religion is absolutely not vital. It's our environment that is decieving (especially other human beings), taking advantage of us in our craving for safety and comfort. A craving which is desirable to all who seek to control us, but utterly unnecessary and false. We as human beings
part of this world we live in have nothing to fear,
nothing, but ourselves and our own stupidity.
