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Originally Posted by MAYBE  People need to believe in something higher then themselves or they lose a sense of accountability |
The only thing "higher than themselves" I believe people need to believe in is an inherent interest in perpetuating the human species. If you consider it carefully, that's at the root of all religious and other moral codes that have been developed.
All the accountability I need is a consideration of whether my actions tend to perpetuate or threaten the species of which I'm a member. That doesn't always square with the iterations of the basic principle that people have developed through the centuries, but it gets to the essence of the matter.
Once you take it further and adopt some conception of a supreme being with its promises of pie in the sky bye and bye, whether it entails pearly gates and streets of gold or 70 sumptuous brown-eyed virgins, you've partaken in what Freud described as "the opiate of the masses".