Some horrible tragedy is in the news, and in the comments someone's aunt goes
How terrible! I pray the victims' souls find peace in Heaven 🙏
Suddenly, atheist guy
You DELUDED FOOL, souls do not exist and there is no God or the afterlife. Try using more logic
I see plenty of non-religious people shape their lives around equally absurd ideologies. When I see a comment saying "my prayers are with you" it just registers to me as someone offering solidarity or condolences. Two things which, when expressed over the internet, are equally as useless. Railing against it just creates conflict where there was none before and I hate to see it.
The main posts "thoughts and prayers" example is petty cringe online discourse from dorks that has zero material influence on the world. The commenter above is showing what 90% of religious people believe and its objectively insane unless you're extending the most innocent interpretations to deluded adults beliefs/motivations who would probably have you skinned alive if they knew you were a socialist.