oblivion

"embrace the simplicity of oblivion". That sounds religious to me.

I think that religion is an important part of the human experience. It is the belief in something greater... without this hope life has no meaning. I say this even though I myself am not religious.

When you're young, you only think about immediate concerns and you don't see things adding up to longer-term patterns w/ consequences.

Once you begin to see how your choices and actions contribute to consequences within your own life, that of others, and the future more generally; it is impossible to achieve bliss through ignorance.

So all these lifestyle activities designed to numb consciousness/conscience in order to indulge in the present moment with reckless abandon are doomed to result in agony when sobriety returns and the irreversibility of bad choices dawns on the mind.

Fortunately there is religion to save us with divine forgiveness and/or other methods to achieve some level of detachment from what would other wise be an unbearable weight of regret and/or denial.

I'm an atheist as well and would appreciate the delegitimization of hatemongering and fearmongering provided by many religions if people en mass stopped fetishizing their religions and dumped the institutions already. But it ain't happening. Not in this millennium (or conceivable distant future). Much of religion will always be part of human nature.

And I ain't a cruel, morally misshaped monster who would steal the emotional comfort food of millions who take solace in their respective gentle self-reassuring belief systems provided by the better religious institutions out there.

Your religion-free utopia will never happen. Well? At least in your own life time or mine.

Most humans have a fear of death . This has provided a wonderful opportunity for many people to claim that they have found the unique answer ,or have been 'chosen' by a mysterious higher power which will give everlasting life in another world with all sorts of amazing benefits , so you have nothing to fear -
but only if you blindly follow the laid down rules .
The truth is very likely to be ; on dying you cease to exist - just as you did before you were born .
It will happen . Live life to the full . Enjoy the company of others .

People fear death . The inevitable end of life . From existing to not existing .
Promise people an after - life (with no proof ) , hence a multitude of religions
appear all over the world . Each claiming to be the truth . Giving power and wealth to the instigators .
Enjoy your one life with the others you meet on the journey .

I agree with that . How can we speed up the process of rejecting religion around the world, without causing a violent reaction ?

"How good the world would become if we could abandon the nonsense of religion and the supernatural."

I wonder what your definition of religion is? My definition is that religion is the balance of the mind and the physical. Many people seem to want to downgrade the physical and isolate the mental as a soul that is somehow held down and dragged down by the encumbrance of the body.

Often the religious ideal is portrayed as a soul that has finally freed itself from the encumbrance of a body. How boring that would be! Heaven seems like a real drag.