An atheist speaks for me here

Whatever Christianity is, it is not worship of the God-shaped hole. Whatever Judaism is, it is not the worship of the God-shaped hole. Whatever Islam is, it is not the worship of the God-shaped hole. And in fact if you take the precepts of those religions at all seriously, you can see praying to the God-shaped hole for what it is: idolatry.

… If you know you are pursuing faith not because you authentically believe in the stories the faith traditions tell, but rather because you believe that the trappings of religion will make you feel better, the journey will be an aimless and likely short one. Religious practice often finds its fullest flower when the fight to maintain faith is the hardest. But who would go through those dark nights of the soul to maintain fidelity to an abstract conception of community, to a God who isn’t there? I do not see how consequentialist religion can be called religion at all. Postmodern Christianity undermines the very foundations of faithfulness by instrumentalizing God, turning God into a means and not an end. But everything I know about Abrahamic religion tells me that God is meant to be the ultimate end.

Freddie, Haidt’s belief in belief (emphasis added)

Hurry and you can see the original, which for some reason will self-destruct in a couple of days by Freddie’s will.