I don't think life is short. I'm simply waiting for the day I get to go the next life and spend eternity in a blissful paradise because I picked the right god.
As someone who has lived in the DC area for 25 years and has known many people who work on the hill (staffers, lobbyists, DNC/RNC staff), perhaps I have a different perspective than the average American. The DNC decides who they're going to back, and by the time it's packaged and marketed to...
You can commit any sin and still go to heaven as long as you ask god for forgiveness and push your religious down other people's throat in a smarmy and self-righteous manner.
It's hard to get the pseudo-comfort of religious and wishful thinking once you realize that's what it is. However, this can open one up to a world of getting actual comfort through those around them and via their own internal resources and strength, which is a lot more real, dependable, and...
Some people need rules more than others, in order to be decent or do the right thing. For those people, I'm glad they have rules to help them, and protect us.
The problem with Marx, like so many philosophers, is that their observations are correct (and often self-apparent), but their solutions (if they have any) generally aren't.