I sometimes wonder about atheists as they simply seem to think "we are here just cuz". Do I dislike them, no, but I just think that it's silly to think we are just here and were started by a spark of energy. Where did that energy come from? What sparked it? What sparked that?
I can only speak for myself here, but the atheistic perspective on the beginning of the universe (I think that's the bit you're talking about) is that we don't know, but neither does Religion. We don't know from a scientific perspective because cosmology just hasn't advanced far enough, but hopefully we will one day. I would say that Religions do not *know* either, because they do not have facts to prove their points about the origin of the universe. They are unable to make predictions about the universe, e.g. the prediction of the Earth being 6,000 years old is wrong, and I don't think that there is any reason to believe them.
The list goes on and on and as I type this myself I begin to contemplate existence itself which is ultimately where religion can fill the gaps. Anyways, there is always an explanation and although religion is somewhat primitive in hinds sight, it offers somewhat of an explanation to life and why we are here.
I really do not think that Religion is able to explain anything, other than things like "Why do Jews not eat pork? Because of their religion." While I hate to trivialize Religious beliefs for fear of offense in such a manner, consider this example: You're trying to get to sleep one night, when you hear a loud bang from the other room. There are a number of conclusions you could draw from this, you could suppose that this proves that a unicorn (for which there is no evidence) just stumbled around and knocked over a plate, or that a cat (for whom there is a multitude of evidence and documentation proving not only their existence, but that there is one occupying your house) did something similar. Obviously the rational and probably correct answer is the cat, but it could have been a burglar, or something else (this representing the slight possibility that maybe Creationism *and* Evolution are wrong, the dichotomy often presented between the two is a false one).
My opinion on religious texts is that a similar situation happened in the distant past, e.g. Lightning strikes a tree, is God angry or was there a build up of static electricity in the atmosphere? Unfortunately, for the vast majority of human history we did not have access to scientific knowledge about the universe, this is like if in the previous cat example, we did not know of the existence of cats, so the unicorn being the perpetrator seemed perfectly reasonable in comparison.
Add in an unhealthy dose of tradition and fear of academic insights (at least for certain time periods/regions), and voila, Religion.
Poll