Promised Something Better

To me, one of the saddest and scariest realizations I have had since de-converting is the way religion promises something better after death. It is the single most comforting thing to a religious person, this idea that there's more than what we have here on earth. This notion that there is an eternal reward for the suffering here on earth is what gets many people through. 

The issue I have with it is that it sets people up. People put up with shit they shouldn't. They settle. They endure abuse and put up with an awful existence because they believe there is something better waiting for them on the other side of this life. 

There is power in taking control of your life. In seeing this life as a fleeting gift that we get to experience for a little while. When you view this life as the one chance you get and look at it through the lens of things being finite, it changes your perspective on a lot of things. Instead of trudging through life, trying to live by a weird set of archaic rules with zero proof the rules matter at all, people should live their best life and be compassionate towards others. 

I am a firm believer that religion was necessary early on, to give early civilizations ways to explain their world without science and give them some guidelines to move out of primitive ways. But, I believe that today, religion holds us back as a species. It is no longer necessary to show us how not to be barbarians. Instead it prevents progress. It perpetuates things like misogyny and homophobia. It reinforces the patriarchy. And the institution covers up abuse, rakes in tax free money and it ruins people's lives. For what? 

I feel for those who allow themselves to suffer, waiting for something better. Make THIS better. Make THIS life here, worthwhile and don't take it for granted. There are no guarantees and that includes the idea of there being a god at all. It sucks that there is suffering and it makes sense that people would try to find a way to understand why suffering is a thing. I would argue it makes less sense for there to be suffering with the existence of a god than without the existence of one.