Approximately 8 billion years from now, our great star will become a red giant, doubling in size, engulfing the Earth, and life as we know it will cease to exist. Of course, we don’t have to worry about that. In the next billion years, long before it burns out, our star will continue to grow hotter, slowly cooking our planet until conditions can no longer support life. Given the trends of species survival, it’s another leap of faith to assume we’ll survive even that long. Supervolcanoes, giant comets, nuclear war—the list of potential threats to our existence is long. Some are natural and out of our control, while others are completely within our control—if we’re wise enough to recognize the danger and act appropriately.

In the end, though, it doesn’t matter how we will go. What matters is that we will go. That is for sure.

But this is not to say we should adopt a nihilistic approach and give up on everything! The purpose of life is to live it fully.

Be kind to people. Help them when you can. Take care of your children and teach them to care. Try to leave this world a better place than you found it. Have fun. Drink good beer. Go swimming. Enjoy sex. Do what feels right, as long as your actions aren’t harming others.

And lay aside the distractions. Religion won’t save us. It is often a cry for help to a god that might not be there, a method to control people and enslave both body and mind, sometimes justifying wars that need not be fought.

Since humans gained the ability to reason and discovered that just as we are here now, one day we will be gone, we have looked to some form of religion for answers. It is only natural that we developed a belief in the supernatural, out of fear as much as a tool to help us maintain our sanity while tackling the dangerous tasks of survival, like hunting giant animals with wooden spears. But just as we no longer need to hunt elk with spears, we no longer need to lie to ourselves about a man in the clouds keeping a checklist on all seven or so billion of us to ensure we aren’t breaking any rules, and then casting the sinners into a lake of fire to burn for eternity.

It seems silly when you think about it. Some might question the intelligence of anyone who still, in this age of advanced scientific theory, puts stock in a book of ancient stories that isn’t even that old in the grand scheme of things. And yet many doctors, senators, lawyers, and other well-educated people still find meaning in these myths. While the power of indoctrination is strong, it’s also true that people can draw valuable lessons from old texts, using them as guides to lead good, purposeful lives.

The problem arises when these beliefs are twisted to harm others, justify violence, or reject the progress we’ve made through science and reason.

Many of us have learned to set aside the good book we were raised on, to step out into the big, scary world without dogmatic armor… and have realized that it’s really not that scary after all.

Sure, as I said in the beginning, this glorious ride will come to an end someday. All people die. And so do all planets, stars, galaxies… even the universe itself may eventually collapse back in on itself, starting the cycle all over again—at least, that’s one leading theory.

The universe is bigger and more complex than we can imagine. And who knows? Perhaps at the center, or the end, or the beginning, or running throughout, there lies a force or energy that is what we’ve been searching for since the dawn of self-realization. Maybe it’s what some call God.

It may be so. But whatever this force is, we know what it is not. It is not the vicious, cruel, hypocritical, jealous man-god portrayed in a 2,000-year-old book, full of contradictions and violence—a book that has fueled much death and destruction over the course of its existence.

As a species, we might be better off if more of us recognized that we don’t need religious texts to guide our morals. We already possess the ability to love our fellow humans and lead good, meaningful lives without them.

It’s an exciting world out here, full of mysteries and joy. Break the chains that hold you to outdated beliefs—or don’t. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter, as long as your beliefs aren’t hurting others. Perhaps everything you’ve just read is complete bullshit.

Either way, let’s try to enjoy the ride. It’s a short one.

Author: Nick Allison is just a banged-up Army Infantry vet. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife, their kids, and two big, dumb, ugly mongrel dogs. Don’t take anything he says too seriously—he’s just trying to figure out this ride we call existence like everyone else. Also, he enjoys writing his own bio in third person because, let’s face it, it probably makes him feel more important.