True those Atheists that believe that religion is the root of all evil and without it we'd be living in utopia are usually plenty religious. There's a reason for the -ism in Atheism.

And then there's the evil cousin of Atheism, Scientism, the silent killer that already far surpassed the human death & misery caused by organized religion. At least the romans crucified people, for everyone to see how petty they are to resort to that, the modern equivalent is pretty much universally venerated as heroes.

What always bothered me about buddhism are the nihilistic tendencies, I do believe the core idea behind it to be true, but they take such a pessimistic stance about that, only kept in balance by promises of the possibility to escape.

Also them denying their psychedelic/shamanistic roots is so silly. And them seeing psychedelics as cheating, too easy and a quick fix. Sitting all day thinking about thinking or trying not to think vs. getting shot out of a cannon into orbit, getting cut to pieces by interdimensional beings, spending felt years there, getting bombarded by information and trying to piece together everything afterwards having inherent amnesia. Yes your method sounds so much harder:roll:.