That is the exact problem with many (not all!) people and whatever faith they follow. To them and many observers it is assumed that to do good and help people means pleasing a God so when they die they will go to heaven.
This is wrong.
People who don't follow a faith in their daily lives do good all the time and don't do it to satisfy any God so they have an afterlife in comfort (whether it exists or not doesn't matter here).
This is what it all comes down to, the idea of, as you say,
hope. The thought of dying to some is terrifying and hearing that when they die they will simply break back down into the Earth and Universe that they first emerged from and nothing beyond that isn't exactly a pleasant thought.
We know evolution exists, there's historical evidence and active evidence in the microbial world where evolution has been and still is being observed under the microscope.
Things are changing though as time goes on and you only have to look at the history of the World to see this. People are no longer being hung for speaking against religion in the Western World and while change is less obvious in the East, it is happening all the same.
For myself, even though almost everyone around me follows religion of some description and to various levels, I choose the logical path as it is the most sensible way of looking at everything and simply take part in cultural traditions and observe the differences and uniqueness of other people in their own ways.
Sometimes maybe I'm too open minded and accepting of people but one thing I can never take seriously are people who constantly go on and on about atheist this and Christian/Muslim that as if they're on a mission to convert everyone to their personal ideals.
I see people day in and out praying for things to happen around their lives and those prayers never get answered. It takes man get up and do something about the problems in the World today. No God has ever come down to save innocent people from dying in horrible ways. I think if those people were meant to be in heaven then why were they born (created) in the first instance to only suffer and die painfully. That defies any logic and a God above anything else in the Universe or beyond would be the absolute height of logic.
I do have all the respect for faith and the
sensible people who follow it because at the same time those who don't follow one have their own way of making sense of everything and that should be acknowledged and respected by everyone mutually but it's clear that certain people following religion are afraid of the changes going on in this age and will do whatever it takes to slow it down.
Another way of looking at it is seeing how modern religions have been created right under our noses, religions that we know are full of nonsense yet have been accepted as actual religions (Scientology). If something like that can exist in the modern age then think about the times before this.
We're humans, we are still evolving and getting smarter with the help of modern science but old habits die hard I guess
