I understand why people want to believe in some higher power and afterlife, as it must be comforting. But we’re no more necessary than the first single cell microbe in even just the lifespan of the Earth. There’s no reason to our existence, but we have to give it meaning. We have - maybe unfortunately for other life forms - evolved enough to consider those questions, which could be said gives us a responsibility to the planet and its ecosystem, instead of just destroying it in a fight to the bottom for resources and the burning of those resources. We’ll destroy each other before we evolve enough to shed our base instincts. The planet will be fine of course.
Wars, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, Donald Trump being elected, etc, prove a material amount of humans still act on their base primal instincts (which have served their purpose along the way admittedly), rather than using their intelligence to fight the worst of those instincts. We’re all deluded, in different ways, and religion is maybe the biggest delusion. I understand it though, it’s easier than thinking about the reality of us being primitive life forms flying through the universe on a big rock with a fragile atmosphere.
But it’s humbling to acknowledge what we don’t know far outweighs what we do know. But that doesn’t mean we should revert to magical thinking to fill those unknown unknowns.
Atheism, in my opinion, is the logical way forward for humanity to strip its base instincts and to be truly civilised and advanced. And, as even the Pope acknowledged, religion is being used more than ever to excuse horrific behaviour and even government policies.
