Im an atheist and I listen to The Lord of the Rings audiobook so I can sleep at night. Reality is fucking awful and I like my fairy tales.

Don't forget the "not believing in god = sadness" one. Realizing it is fake actually brought relief for the ex-religious people that I know (anecdotal, I know. I don't have the actual numbers).

It's more of a generational issue, really. Convincing someone who was already indoctrinated as a baby and began to "pray" as early as their arm coordination allowed it is almost cruel, really. At that point it's reality-shattering. Let alone if your religion included any kind of body-modification, especially without anesthesia (that shit burns itself into the very fabric of your brain as a baby). In that case it's even worse, as it'd entail the realisation that your body has been violated (some may use stronger wording).

At the end of the day what counts is that you're a decent person, no matter your stance on religion or spirituality.

Soo what is the message here?

That proselytizing about atheism without considering the needs and character of your audience can be just as bad as religion doing the same.

Love is more important than being right, and the son in the comic very clearly didn't show any. As soon as he proved his point, he left to go celebrate with his friends rather than spend time with his mother. He failed to show her that just because there is no big sky god doesn't mean that is no love.

It's about atheists who make atheism their whole personality.

Don't be anti-intellectual about this silly comic. People can apply intellectual analysis to stupid things if they want to, and they damn-well may find deeper meaning sometimes.

Let people have their hobbies.

Even other atheists or agnostics use that caricature of reddit atheists. It's less so atheists and more like atheists who make atheism their whole personality

Sad that the existential dread of not existing after death makes life pointless.

I've got a somewhat different take, but similar

We are shedding light on the world through science and philosophy. We first figure out the most effective ways to think about things with philosophy, and then we apply that thought process with the scientific method to further our understanding.

Eventually, we will always reach the shadows on the edge our understanding, whether personally or as a society. Past that point, we are really just making up apparitions in the dark, until we can shed light on that edge.

That process of spotting forms in the dark is always going to be informed by some unfalsifiable ideation, either because we can't test the ideas we have, or because the ideas we have are inherently unproveable.

To me, it really doesn't matter what kind of ideation you have past that point of shadow, be it religion or nihilism or panpsychism or determinism, but I hope that whatever idea you have faith in brings you solace and makes those dark forms in shadow less daunting.

The problem comes, when you chose to be in the dark about something and apply faith-based arguments where light has already been shed, or when you use apparitions you made up as an excuse to do harm to others.

When I worked in a nursing home, I was Christian.

I mean, I wasn't. At all. But the dying little old ladies who sundowned so bad that they sometimes thought I was their grandchild? When they asked if I believed in Jesus, I'd bite my tongue and tell them yes. I hated having to lie to their faces, I hate even thinking about it all these years later, but some of them had nothing to look forward to except "going to heaven" by that point. Lying seemed the most ethical choice.

Not every member of a church experiences those things first hand.