in the past we had religion, which gives some people hope. we have yet to find the replacement for religion.

Religion gives you a set of things to believe in, a community, and maybe some transcendent experiences. You can still choose to believe whatever you want though even without religion, and there are many other sources of community and transcendent experiences out there.

Religion wraps it all up in a nice package, and plenty of folks do still choose religion and reap plenty of benefits from it, but there are other options out there.