Critical thinker, skeptical about atheism.

[KevinM1]

at the end of the day we all have a desire for fulfillment in this life, and I believe that's why atheism is such a minority belief system in our world,

A minority that's increasing in numbers every day...

Plus, you're assuming that only religion can bring about fulfillment. I think everyone else here disagrees with that notion.

it leaves one empty, because it has no answers for the most basic questions, and who wants to live an Empty existence,

I certainly don't feel empty. I feel empowered. I don't need a sky daddy to tell me how to act or what to feel. My life is my own. I'm the one in charge.

wondering what the point of getting up in the morning is, if one lives a meaningless life that ends in a hole in the ground,

Everyone's life ends in a hole in the ground. That much is fact. We just differ in that we don't need the fantasy of an eternal afterlife to give this life value.

some will say, "There is no meaning to life, but you can just use your imagination to make one up", but thats living a delusion.

How is religion any different?

And so we will always have religion it seems to me, since the alternative is a despair,

WHY is the alternative despair? Again, no one here feels despair because they don't believe in a deity. You keep asserting things, but saying them doesn't make them true. Everyone here is living evidence against your claims.

even if its veiled in a kind of "positive denial", that everything is OK with the world,

despite it being completely meaningless and empty, seems like an oxymoron to me.

EDIT (for politeness): again, we don't believe that life is meaningless and empty.

I get it - it's been drilled into your head that without god, life holds no meaning. The thing is, that's simply not true. I know it's hard to believe or understand because you've been indoctrinated (no insult intended, just fact), but it's true.

My life's meaning comes from my family, my friends, my work, my hobbies, my attempts to make my little corner of the world a slightly better place.... I don't need a god for any of that.

I was raised Catholic. My fleeting belief in god made no positive difference in my life. I wasn't a happier person. I wasn't a better person.

Oh and a little off topic, amazing inexplicable phenomena in this world, backed up by incredible discoveries in Paranormal Psychology, certainly reinforce the validity of religion as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eg9qY_7qvg

No, it doesn't. Paranormal psychology and things along those lines are complete bunk. Ghost Hunters isn't real.