Perhaps those are the very people who resort to the religious version of that waking hypnosis...to get them through their lives in "this world." The only downside is that they spend their lives waiting for another, more glorious one, rather than living the only life they know for certain that they have to its fullest. That's a lot of eggs to put in one fanciful basket and a waste of human potential for those who spend much of their time in "worship."
Depends on what you mean by 'religion' . Blindly accepted dogma may be religion as you suggest, but religion can be as simple as a feeling that the world and life have a purpose in being - that there's something strangely, beautifully meaningful behind all the shock and savagery we experience in existing. This state of mind needn't be achieved through self-deception but may be arrived at through openly accepting the essential mystery of existence while never relinquishing the search for understanding of the possible meaning of the joy, pain, glory, beauty, ugliness that is in us and all around us. When I snap my fingers you will wake and believe all the bunk I just posted.
Most everybody tries to get through this life. Since you don't know and don't believe there is something more than this life, you may conclude that "This is all there is. There is nothing more." That is only one logical possibility but there are other logical possibilities. If you are content with the path you have taken, why is it that you seem to have a need to criticize and marginalize the paths that others have taken simply because they run counter to yours? If you are truly content with your own choices, why so bitter about the choices of someone else?
Other "logical" possibilities? If you say so... I criticize the whimsical notion that simply imagining something makes it so. I think it comes down to a choice between avoiding reality or dealing with the one that is recognizable to our senses and cognition. Fanciful or wishful thinking, while comforting, are probably best recognized for what they are. I'm not bitter about personal choices that actually remain personal choices. However, I am "bitter" about such "personal choices" that have historically had a tendency to morph into the equivalent of mob rule rooted in whim or veiled self-interest. Consider the Middle East. Or, closer to home, the Righteous Right.
So you think some people are avoiding "reality?" Likely to some extent in all of the people some of the time, and in some of the people all of the time. However, back to the salient point: Is God a reality? You don't believe so, which has no bearing on the truth of the matter. Others believe so, which also has no bearing on the matter. So you don't really know the reality any more than anyone else...so what is your problem? Since you don't know if their beliefs are true or not, why is it an issue for you? Historically, people have forced their atheistic and theistic beliefs on people. So it has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with the fanaticism of people who need for force their beliefs on others. Why be bitter toward the religious who just have their own personal beliefs and care not about the personal beliefs of others? Why lump them all in the same basket? Who right now is "forcing" their theistic beliefs on you? Who makes you watch their channel? Who prevents you from holding your atheistic beliefs?
But don't you see, that's the whole point of the whole thing. Z has been nothing if not consistent in his assertions. He believes that if he personally can imagine that something might be possible, we should be teaching it in schools alongside chemistry and physics. If you ask him why he believes the universe is designed by a Creator God, he will tell you 'Because it appears to me to be designed'. If you ask him for any shred of proof, any bit of evidence that could be cited in order to support the idea that the Universe is designed, he'll say 'It is not up to me to prove the Universe is designed. It is up to you to prove that it is not'. Yes... as sickening as it is, that's the level of intellectual dishonesty that these radicals will employ in order to carry out their stated goal, which is to 'remake Western society in a manner more consistent with theistic ideals'. Hmmm.. let's see... which other religious group has said that they don't like the way Western civilization is structured? Which other religious group has said that personal freedoms are trumped by religious orthodoxy?
For the moment, no one. However, there are those in your fine country who wish to rewrite the laws to better conform to the bible. I find that troubling. You see, that goes rather beyond the "personal."
Depends on what you mean by a deity. The Universe might be a deity. I suppose you mean those deities that require worship. If so, I tend to agree that such entities would be odd - why would things so innately grand need our puny admiration? But then, that's anthropomorphizing the deity again. Who are we to know the motives of the gods?
WHAT? This entire post is a Ztrollism, There is nothing requiring worship, for the very factor of doing so, deconstructs the basis of it's existence, the anthopomorhic nature of this bollocks.