It seems to me that, in the absence of God, man is adrift, a captive of his own skin and circumstances. He is not able to acknowledge more than mere existence, therefore can never escape his own shortcomings.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a deeply religious pastor and German patriot, said this, before his execution in 1945 as a spy for his part in an attempt on Hitler’s life:
Without the foundation of creation by the living God, “Humankind no longer lives in the beginning; instead it has lost the beginning.
“Now it finds itself in the middle, knowing neither the end nor the beginning, and yet knowing it is in the middle.”
He continued, saying that man struggled to escape from the prison he had constructed for himself, but was never able to do so. The atheist was boxed in by his own self-righteousness.
The solution is simple, but unacceptable to the God-is-me crowd: Sacrifice self for the inestimable satisfaction of life with Jesus Christ as your personal savior.
Living in Him, life has not only The beginning, but an internal relationship with Him–truly a Friend with benefits.