I doubt, that i have more to lose than you.

You are one who "serves another master" for several hundreds or thousands of smaller and larger religions.

For most of those, I am rather independent.

OK, there is no paradise for me, but also no hell.
for you there is hell and paradise (except if you believe, that you'll go to heaven whatever you do), so you create a fear inside yourself, a fear you have to counter with belief that servitude to your master will get you to heaven.

What if there was neither hell nor heaven?

If your belief is right, then I'll be judged by my actions, which follow my morale.
I don't have much problem with that, for I act as I feel right, and I assume I spent more time thinking about the right way to act than most christians.

If your god should then decide to judge me down, because I didn't belief in him/her/it, then I can go to your hell without problems.
And since the hell you believe in isn't even hell on earth, but a cleansing fire, I myself don't even have to fear that.

But what if I am right? What if you find upon your death, that there is no paradise?

If I find, that I won't be reborn, then I know, that I lived right by my own choice, and that I am happy with how my life went, because I didn't fix my meaning of life too fix on some immaterial being.

My life holds some very simple meanings:

- Humans are meant to get children, our dna wants that, if it didn't, we wouldn't be (for our grand-grand-grand-...-parents would have gotten children).

- Humans are meant to preserve this planet, for that is, what will make our children survive. If I can't get a hell of a lot children then, because that would increase overpopulation, so be it. This is extending the will of my dna.

- I want to live a joyful life, and it shall be joyful still, when I'm 20 years older.

- I want to be able to look back in 20 years and say: I did mostly right. I'm content with my actions.

- I want that all people can enjoy their life the same way, if they choose so.

- I don't want to do to others, which I don't want done to me. (Simple mirror neurons firing in my brain: I can imagine the pain of others, and since I don't want to suffer pain, I don't want others to, but if it is "me or _one_ other human" my decision would most likely be "me", depending on situation and person, though)

- Since I think that, if everyone (or at least more people) followed my values, life would be better for everyone, I want to teach others my values.

Besides: What helps my children, helps me in some way, even though I don't have children yet.

From this you can deduct a wonderful meaning for life, and you won't need a god for that.

(there are many more things in life, most people don't see, but none of it was enough for me, to join some definite faith. I'm neither pagan, nor christian, nor even a full atheist, but I live as I feel and think is right, and love is one of the most intense feelings, love to a person as well as love to all existence, so I want to experience and spread that feeling (as far as it does no harm, or at least less harm than (long-lasting) pleasure). And it isn't easy to stay apart from safe "truths", and sometimes I succumb to them, but I'm always glad if others get me to realize, I had run into something again ).

That following a gods/faith'/religions principle moves you in a similar direction as following ethical and societally efficient values is more than just coincidence, because if it wasn't such, (majorly) christian society wouldn't have been able to prevail.

Those christian values are bound to be somewhat efficient for a society, but they need not be the best for todays society. And that is also true for the belief in god.

If believing in god isn't good for society as a whole, then I doubt even god would want of humans to belief in him/her/it, else it wouldn't be a benevolent god anymore.

Besides: Do you believe in the devil?

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