The Skeptic Ideology

XGH recently wrote about Michael Shermer's idea that "anti-anything" movements can never succed unless they offer something positive. In response to this idea - which, incidentally, I somewhat agree with - XGH posted a skeptic ideology which includes:

-There is no real goal or purpose to the Universe, and by extension to anything in it.
-There is no afterlife. When you die, you die.

Littlefoxling commented: "I agree that what skepticism offers is no match for what religion offers. On the other hand, what skepticism offers, it really does offer. What religion offers is just pretend."

1. What does intellectual honesty gain us? (Aside, perhaps, from existential angst.)
2. In my experience, most humans need a real purpose to life and crave for the idea of an afterlife, however fanciful these beliefs may be.

XGH also wrote:

"Free Will and Consciousness are really illusions of the mind, they don’t actually exist."

I really don't understand what it means to say that consciousness is an illusion of the mind. Does this mean that I'm not *really* experiencing reality? That I'm not more aware of my surroundings than a rock? Unless you venture into silly definitions of reality, consciousness exists. The argument that there is no "consciousness organ" and therefore no evidence for consciousness is, as far as I'm concerned, elegantly rebutted with Descartes' "Cogito Ergo Sum".

PS - For those of you who are curious, the wedding was awesome and married life rocks.