Religion: Sweet lie which promises you everything you wished for after you die.
Atheism: Hard truth about the dark emptiness after the death.
Of course people don't want to handle the hard truth about life & death.. that's why religion will always be popular.
Having said that, you'll have a hard time finding religious people in Nordic Countries. Something like 85% of the population are atheist, & the rest are either very-old, or immigrants from middle eastern countries.