How does Phillip Larkin's "Church Going" comment on atheism and the role of religion in human life?

Phillip Larkin’s “Church Going,” composed in 1954, analyzes the conflict between spirituality and organized religion. The persona enters an empty church, walks around, and then donates a worthless coin before leaving. He reflects that the church “wasn’t worth stopping for,” before contradicting himself, and admitting that he in fact stops there often (18). He calls the church “a serious house,” and states that it will always satisfy “a hunger...to be more serious” (55, 60). With this, we learn that the speaker’s spirituality manifests itself in a longing to discern something in life worth taking seriously; he’s looking for something genuine, or meaningful. However, the church, a symbol for organized religion, fails to satisfy this longing. The role of religion then, for Larkin, is to gratify a natural desire for seriousness, though he believes modern religion fails to do so.

Despite his dislike of the church, the speaker doesn’t turn to atheism. He asserts, “superstition, like belief, must die,” but counters this notion at the end when he says that churches “never can be obsolete” (36, 53). The persona criticizes religion’s superstitions and beliefs, but finally implies that churches are necessary for spiritual development. The speaker’s thoughts on religion, then, are conflicted. He approves of its goal: to reveal authenticity, answer universal questions, and discern how to live a moral and fulfilling life. However, he’s disenchanted by modern religion’s apparently “random” superstition, and obscure intent (33). For Larkin then, atheism, in the expanded sense that one gives up one's spirituality, is unnatural to human nature, for we will always be searching for some form of spiritual contentment.