The problem is the notion of separate "foundational entity". That's why theists are stuck in America insisting they arrived in India, while atheists are somewhere between Seychelles and Maldives with India still nowhere in sight. Yes, when these things remain in the realm of academic debates, there are no practical implications. That's why there are many people who talk the "right talk" but don't walk the "right walk". However, asceticism is not the answer.

When one knows "I am" beyond any doubt, the values of every thing are leveled, thus the envy that motivates lying, stealing, cheating, and killing (and anything that abets it) falls away. It simply disappears. There is also a clear view of causality running all the way from BB to present moment (as per scientific explanation), so one has no problem to accept things (which does not preclude the motivation to steer the "causal stream" one can influence in the way one sees fit). Of course, this can be "accomplished" only if one is able to "rest in wholeness" letting go of all delusions of grandeur and not searching for "I am" in external or internal images ("foundational entity", no matter how abstract, is one such image). As you may have noticed, that it is basically also what Torah (as it was intended) says.