You can also find solace in any number of religions, so it's best to do your research before choosing thing most obvious one.
Agreed. As a philosophy and religious studies major, I'd like to apply what I'm learning to your circumstance. If there is such a course still extant when you graduate (mine's been axed), I'd suggest you take it. Like Canalan, I don't want to turn this into a religious debate; the reason I've steered clear of the religion/atheism threads on Bay12 is because I
like this forum and don't want it to make me rage...
The crisis you are going through is one of the symptoms of modern society, which - mistakenly believing that religion and philosophy were primitive attempts at science - has attempted to replace traditional world-views with modern ones, rather than allowing the two to exist in harmony (to be fair the increase in religious literalism has really helped this along; the majority of people don't understand how to think symbolically anymore). The purpose of religion is to offer us a way of
being in the world. Institutions, morality, dogma, that all comes to it later. Foremost, religion exists to give us the very purpose - not a goal, but a sense of worth - that you seem to be seeking. When I say "religion", most people will read "Christianity", and this can cause a significant cringe factor in modern society; that's not my intent. I'm not a Christian, though I respect the core of their belief. To put my cards on the table, I'm a
Traditionalist - put simply, I believe that all religions share a common value; they are "different paths up the same mountain".
You seem to have the cultivated, questioning mind that lends itself well to religion and philosophy. So when I say that you should start thinking in a traditional perspective, I don't mean you should smash your iPhone and head down to the nearest temple, be it revivalist church, synagogue, mosque, gompa, joss house, or stone circle, and sign up; I'm saying you should visit them all. Stand in their sacred places and get a feel for what makes them special, why people want to be a part of such things. Don't let any one (including Richard Dawkins) convince you the rest are wrong - this is untraditional thinking. Read about the different faiths and find out not what they do every weekend but how they perceive the world, what they think about life, death, everything you find yourself thinking about. From there, move on to philosophy. I'm not talking Kant and Marx; modern stuff is pretty bleak. Read Plato's
Timaeus, and when he writes about humans seeing by shooting fire from their eyes, think not about how he's gotten it backwards but what it might
really mean. Read the Odyssey as a spiritual quest for immortality. Look for symbols.
Above all, for Armok's sake, never be afraid to think about things. Except ducks. Thinking about ducks is anathema.
I told you not to think about ducks. You've gone and done it now...
tl;dr:
There are only right answers; sometimes the questions are the wrong ones.