I wasn't seeking "satisfaction." In fact, just the opposite. Wouldn't I have been much happier if I had just swallowed the whole package with a smile? Blotted out my higher brain functions and lived my life in willful, blissful ignorance?

 

You see, I came to realize that mankind invented religion because humans desperately want to believe three things, which are universal to all "faiths":

 

1. There's no such thing, really, as death.

 

2. Life is fair 

 

3. Life has a purpose.

 

All three are utterly false. But it feels SO much better to believe that they're true! Look, I get it! The peasant toils and sweats and starves, watches his children die, looks up at the lord's castle on the hill and says, "Well, I'm going to heaven and he's going to hell, ha ha, so it'll all be just in the end." That's great for the guy in the castle. No peasant revolts. Everybody keeps digging in the dirt.

 

It's a very comforting illusion. Much better than acknowledging, "My life is shit, and when I die, I'll be dead." Again...I get it!

 

Religion has proved to be extremely useful for rulers and masters. Do you think anyone could assemble an army if the soldiers all knew they were risking everything they had? That if they were killed, that would be the end of their existence? No! But tell them they're headed for heaven, everlasting glory, unlimited Netflix, etc. and they'll charge joyously into battle.

 

I'm very glad to be rational. "Faith," which by definition is to believe something without proof, is something I find abhorrent. As I said, I understand why people have faith. It often beats the crap out of cold, hard reality. 

 

Maybe neither of us truly had a choice. You had your brain stuffed with religion from a very early age. They didn't wait until you were mature and had adult reasoning powers and then present you with the God hypothesis. Oh, no. And I was presented with logical contradictions that I simply couldn't abide. Part of me wanted very much to believe. But I realized where that had come from--my human desire to believe those three things. The truth is:

 

1. Death is final. We cease to exist in any form.

 

2. Life isn't fair. The scales are never balanced, except by accident.

 

3. There is no purpose to life, no grand design, no overseeing master.

 

And I know you feel terribly sorry for me for feeling this way. I have no choice. My mind won't let me be irrational.