Only someone who hasn't explored, in depth, multiple religions can say the similarities are superficial.
Jesus, the sun of god, is born on December 25th. Do you know just how many other religions have that exact same date and story? Its not coincidence. And it is not one story being told in lots of places. It is a VERY significant event, that atheists, if they had any deep logic, would respect and honor.
Atheists have no logic.
In order to be an atheist you have to believe in the largest coincidence(s) in the universe.
However, the most important thing to realize is that we were given free will.
In order to have free will you have to be able to believe or not believe in God.
Also, there has to be a path to find God yourself, each person, individually.
And that other person's choice has to have no effect on your belief.
Thus, we end up with a world were science cannot prove God.
However, there are signs of God everywhere.
"Seek, and so shall ye find"
God left so many fingerprints at the scene of Creation that you wonder — does He want to be found, or does He want to be stopped?
Robert Breault
Further, atheist can only access level one truths. And without level 2 & 3 truths, you really cannot make a fulfilling life. To an Atheist, only relative truths exist, and thus, there is no good, nor bad. Everything that happens is by chance. You are a clump of cells with no future. That kind of logic leads to a very sad life.
What role would you say ignorance plays in determining the richness of ones ability to exercise free will?
That is an interesting and deep topic.
Looking back, you will often say, "ignorance was bliss".
But in the cycle of life, you come back to the same place where you have both, the knowing and the richness.
So, once you get to that mountain top, and then can see the path, it all makes sense.
Unfortunately, on the path, you neither know why you are struggling or where the destination is. The only thing you know is that you cannot return to where you were.
However, there is the opposite side of this equation, in that having learned the lesson, having expanded your mind, knowing the universe better, you are allowed/able-to create more / bigger things in your life. So, you actually gain more opportunities out of the possibilities.
Jesus the "sun" of god? Lol. You must be the typical 'Murican who thinks Jesus wrote the King James' Bible and the Budha spoke to his disciples in Anglophone. Then again, the Colonies were initially populated by the religious refuse from a heretical kingdom, so such bastardised religious conception is to be expected from their descendants.
If a man intentionally ignores that Aztec blood sacrifice to feed their sun god contradicts Sino-Budhist injunctions against all killing, even animals, then I suppose he can accept your cock and bull nonsense of all religion being the same. I gather that the Christian conception of man's history ending and the interminable Karmic cyclic of the Hindhu system is but "superficial" difference in their perception of the universe, since they both seem to consider the Winter Solstice (a major cyclical planetary event) to be of some significance.
Rather than using some woo-woo magic to rationalise your whims, why not be honest with yourself and admit that all religions are delusions? Since you have some special access to "god" (whatever that is), your decisions must be the correct ones. Your will drives you forward; lose the bronze age crutch.
i comprehend how you feel this way.
i used to be much like that.
However, everything you wrote in this last reply you can only do out of much ignorance. Responding to them would be saying, it wasn't this way, it was that way. But, since i won't go deep enough and long enough into any of these topics, you will continue to think the easy, derogatory stories.
So, what i will tell you is when you, yourself, find magic, then you will understand how incorrect you are. How small your life and thinking was. It isn't something trifling like adding more area to your thinking, it actually adds more dimensions. Stop living in the 3D world, join us in the 6D world.