Religion is an invention of man, but to what end? There is plenty of talk on the internet about the problems dogmatic fanaticism creates, and I won’t deny that, but there seems to be less discussion on what problems religion tries to solve. At their core, religions try to lay out a plan to be happy in the ultimate sense. Short term happiness can be found from a good movie, mowing the lawn, or a nice vacation. Longer term happiness is more elusive, hence the need for a plan. Religions lay out what will make you happy through their value systems, and avoiding happiness traps. Christianity is self-sacrifice, service to God, and propagating the faith; Buddhism is transcending your identity for the purpose of kindness and teaching others how to do the same; Hinduism is about becoming one with the all-soul and treating every person like God.

Most religions put forward an answer to what happens after our life is over. This provides obvious benefits to ease the fear, anxiety, and confusion around death. With enough faith, you can fill the hole. More interestingly, religions extend on their answer to the afterlife, and posit that we should plant trees whose shade we will never see. Despite the fact that we will die, religions say our good will be rewarded even if we aren’t on the Earth to recieve the reward. What counts as good is different depending on the value system of the religion, but most say this good will lead to further reward. When doing good is its own reward, you are upholding God’s ideal. Doing good becomes self-perpetuating. Doing good is the path to happiness and the fruit itself.

Religions try to solve the issue in human perception that good things are good, bad things are bad. To face the ups and downs of life with equanimity is a key to happiness. “Happiness is not getting what you want, but wanting what you get.” God’s plan and emptiness both try to give logic (an unknowable logic, but still a line of reasoning) to senseless bad things. Our sense of good and bad can lead us into happiness traps, where we mistake things that can only bring us short term happiness for things that bring us long term happiness. Will buying a new car make us happy in the long term? No, because the novelty and prestige wear off. Will defending our ego from percieved injustices lead us to happiness? No, because the mind will always find new injustices. Will helping others make us happy in the long term? I’ll leave this as an exercise for the reader.

There are many atheists that say the positive attributes of these religions can be manifested without the organized religion. I agree it is possible, but on average it is easier to cultivate these within the framework of organized religion. It is much easier to volunteer for the community when you just sign up on a clipboard and hop on a bus with your church, sangha, or temple. It is a lot easier to overcome your flaws in a community with a shared language around them and experience in overcoming them. We can reinvent terms like ill-will or sloth and define their antidotes, but why? A positive community that is centered around bettering yourselves and the world around you is a powerful thing. The original Greek word for “church” was more a civic term for concerned citizens than a religious unit.

Just for funsies, let’s do a secular cost-benefit analysis of Pascals wager without the infinite negative value of Hell. The benefit of not living a virtuous life is saving yourself effort from rising above your base reactions. The drawback is feeling disconnected from other, anxious about the meaning of life, and a risk of succumbing to negative nihilism. The drawbacks of living a good life is the hard work of bettering yourself beyond your base instincts and reactions. The benefits are having a happy, fulfilled life, uplifting others, and being at peace with dying. Whether God or Hell exists or not, living a virtuous life is a winning bet.

Naturally, some folks will distort the power structures of religion for oppression, extortion, and hate. All religions have the same goal: become a more patient, happy, and compassionate person. They differ in philosophy on how to go about this. If you’re using differences in philosophy to discriminate, like Hindus and Muslims, religion becomes as trivial as hair color or nationality. You could pick any difference to discriminate on at that point. If you’re using religion to form armies and collect taxes, it’s basically a unit of organized crime. If you’re using it to indocrinate a bunch of rule followers, then they’ve forgotten that the letter kills, but the Spirit brings life. Not all religious people are virtuous, and not all virtuous people are religious.

Ultimately, nothing is more stable for your happiness than being self-sufficient for it. If you are the only one who determines your happiness, then you are the only one you need to rely on. The most freeing insight is that happiness is within your control. Finding sustainable paths to happiness is the meaning of life, and the most sustainable paths often lift up the people around us.