This has been posed to me a number of times since I've defected and expressed doubt in the bible. (Well, started defecting. Er, that just sounds nasty.)
Their question isn't the more common, "Whom shall we go away to?", though. It's more of a, "If you don't have a paradise hope and you question the bible, what hope DO you have? How can you live your life thinking this is all there is?"
I try to explain that I'm comfortable with not having all the answers, considering nobody else knows the real answers to the biggest questions, that "I don't know" is acceptable and that it's impossible for me to re-delude myself with old ideas at this point. So why would I try to fake it in my head?
But the thought of no paradise hope seems completely dismal to them. (And maybe it's been so long that I've forgotten how it would've seemed to me.)
I like to imagine that I was given a piece of paper as a child showing I've been given a herd (?) of unicorns, which I will receive on my 21st birthday. At some point, if (when) I come to realize unicorns are imaginary, I may be a little disappointed but I should quickly grasp that I can’t lose anything I never had to begin with. In fact, it’s a bit comforting to know I’m not alone, since billions of other people have a similar slip of paper and yet they are still deluded into thinking unicorns are real, too. (Just my perspective. Maybe I'm deluded still, eh?)
Plus, while it would be cool to have some unis in my backyard, I can now focus my efforts on a real future instead of trying to secure property and a barn for my imaginary flying friends.
How would you respond? Agnostics/athiests, that is.