The 4 questions: (Who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from? and Where am I going?) are answered at least in part by people who believe in an afterlife.
Did you really mean "afterlife", as opposed to an "external objective purpose"? Theism certainly provides a context for the latter, but does not necessarily mean the former.
Personally, I do not understand why those four questions are better answered by theism, especially if there is an afterlife. This life and what you mean in it seem more concretely answered in atheism.
Atheism answers those questions with little hope: (You are nobody. You are only here as a random universal hiccup. You came from a protozoa. Your going to fertilize something when you die.)
Don't speak for me... You are somebody (the only one who will be you). You are the result of a fascinating process which took place in a pretty amazing and diverse universe. When you die your body will remain as part of that interesting universe and may indeed fertilize more life.
Unless you want me to speak for you... You are nobody but a cog in God's machine. You came from dirt and from dirt you will return. While you are given free will, it is only to choose to obey to being a cog. If you like your role and obey, when you die you get permanently placed in the machine. If you disobey, when you die you will be punished eternally.
A looser sense of morality. Although I qualify that as a liability, some would say its a benefit.
You know one would think that is true. But I have found as much prudishness and moralizing within atheism as I have from any theist. Its like many atheists feel like they have to prove that they can be "good" by sticking to theistically derived rules, which make little sense within atheism.
I think whether a looser morality is a liability or a benefit is relative. My guess is you would find some of the greater moral strictures of Islam or Judaism to be needless and a liability. This is of course what others could feel about specific Xian moral restraints.
It was only a small number of years ago that the Xian morality against miscegenation was removed from law and began to be removed from religious sentiment. Do you feel this loosening of morals was detrimental?
holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)