innate worth

Why do you think that humanity is not simply born with an innate sense of self-worth and self-love? Why do so many of us struggle with the desire to feel accepted and that we serve some purpose being in the world? Is it this struggle, this deep human need that compels us to find God, to find something that can indeed love us unconditionally? How are these two things connected? Or are they at all?


Or, is this just me reaching to find meaning in something, some sort of source for my confusion and the circles I run in my head? I guess that search for meaning is all that religion really is; it's a search for a way to make it through this world. A search for a way to find this world habitable, even in the times it seems impossible (whether that is because of personal, social, global, or political pain). It's not so much that it's an opiate, it's a tool, or an aid, sometimes a crutch, that helps us to try to grasp the unreachable. It gives us hope and understanding in times when neither should exist. At least that's how I see it for the time being...anyone have any thoughts?