Monkeys and Meaning

I understand the need for religion. A bunch of monkeys decided to make social intelligence their killer app. This proved successful. But the monkeys also got smart enough to ask: what is all this for?And there was no answer. So the monkeys invented an answer, and also a thing to give the answer. It’s impossible to miss that the underlying justification for existence that religion gives always seems to match up with the needs of the people in power.But the need for religion remains. We we need an answer for when we stare into the yawning abyss. Now more than ever. The catch, for me, is that I understand this. Hard to believe in religious ideology when its purpose is laid bare. What’s that Jesus? “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.”Isn’t that convenient? So now what? I need to deal with the emptiness of existence. I wake in pain. I work a job I don’t like, to pay for food and shelter, so I can do it all again tomorrow. All while people with more money than the Pharoahs try to take away what few rights and comforts I have. Where do I find meaning in this? I think the typical answer is to find meaning in our friends and family, the loved ones in our lives. Great. But I look at them; they are stuck in this same bullshit system, being ground up by patriarchy and capitalism. Is it compassion to want people to remain, to persist, in this unjust system? We have techbros salivating for a return to feudalism. We have evangelists fighting for a return to theocracy. Fascists are rounding up brown folks. Transphobes are legislating trans people out of public spaces.Is it even ethical to find a way to carry on as normal? Isn’t something more required? I don’t pretend to have an answer to this. This is what pulls me down on bad days. What are we to do?