[kmnc]

> It doesn't provide out-of-the-box answers to these really hard questions and as a result can be a very scary and lonely ideology.

I think you could say the same about religion when it becomes unmasked (in times of great hardship) or under honest rational doubt (The defeated priest trope). The out of the box answers start looking ridiculous and don't seem to offer much hope.

Bergman's Winter Light really made me realize that religion isn't an answer but rather a framework designed to stop looking for answers using things such as tradition, community and moral certainties to ignore the deeper questions. It is useful until it breaks down and then it becomes apparent that we don't have any good alternatives and the resulting reality is rather bleak. One woman in the film finds faith in Love, at least that is a tangible emotion that can be felt, even if it is as misunderstood as anything else.

I think one of the failures of secular thought is to assume that the alternative to religion (universal and rule based) is also universal and rule based. Often depressive thoughts lean towards a thinking that "if EVERYTHING was like X, or if EVERYONE thought like X we would be okay and everyone would be happy". The knowledge that the world will never be like that, along with the desperate hope that it could be, is what imprisons someone in depression. Usually getting out of depression is either an acceptance of a out-of-the-box answer (like religion) or a change in ego where one learns that they define the meaning of life. I've always been partial to egoism in philosophy and ethics and I believe we are advancing the future to better suit it (virtual worlds, no need to work, more of a focus on creativity, leaving the binds of this planet, etc).