Atheism - a first world solution?

I was more than a little curious how Africa would affect me this trip, coming back after so many years out of the church and in the non-religious environment that is London. Africa, which brought me back to Christianity every time I tried to leave it; Africa that shows all the best and worst of religion at its most raw; Africa where humanity began and yet ends so early, so painfully for so many.

Sitting in the nurses station where my friend works, I could overhear the fervent praying - shouting - pleading with god to bring down the "fire" and heal a sick person. One sick person among so many strewn across a crowded room. One of the patients in H2U, which in London means higher percentage of nurses, closer monitoring, strict visitation, all of the things you associate with intensive care...and here means a subset of the main room, separated by a sheet, with as much more attention as they can give, which is often not much. What kind of god that can help, ignores that desperate belief? What kind of god is worth knowing if they can't help?

Yet on the other side of the picture, how do you look someone in the eyes and tell them that after they struggle through this life, after they watch their loved ones die young, after they suffer themselves, that that was it? There is nothing to look forward to, no heaven where they will meet their family again, no healthy body waiting to replace the broken one, no reward for all the hard work and belief? It's easy to sit in a comfy flat in London, enjoying my comfy life and think, if this is it, at least I'm happy and living a good life. But most of the world is not so lucky. It doesn't really change what I believe, but certainly makes me more accepting of religion's place in the world. 

**it took me a while to decide to post this, wrote it while there and just now, two weeks later, putting it up!