To think that God doesn't exist and is a manmade concept

[Perimama]

As it is taboo to talk religion politics with people socially, I often wonder whether many people think like me. As a species we have dismissed all the other "Gods" ie Greek gods etc. What makes the Christian God any different? I wasn't born into a religious household although I was baptized Christian. The whole concept seems so unbelievable to me.

Basically politics.

He had a great PR man in Paul and sadly Constantine was afraid of his army so plumped for Christianity rather than Mithraism as the Roman state religion. Had he gone the other way, we'd probably all be sacrificing white bulls on the 25th December.

Reading the background to the rise of Christianity and the way the books of the bible were put together destroyed forever any credibility that religion might have had for me.

Nope. The assumption that being morally perfect requires a deity to want to eliminate all evil is not at all proven, not at all obvioius and is a very human and limited idea. You can say that if you were God you would want to eliminate all evil. We can certainly agree that a god who wants to eliminate all evil and has the power and knowledge to do so doesn't exist. That doesn't prove that God doesn't exist, only that specific idea of one.

Reading the background to the rise of Christianity and the way the books of the bible were put together destroyed forever any credibility that religion might have had for me
Me too @Elphame delving into it from a historical viewpoint doesn’t take much for it to fall apart

It's is unbelievable. But if some get comfort from it then I'm ok with it.

Religion is an idea of a higher power.

Regardless of what you believe, to have faith and to live by the guidelines of your religion is no bad thing.

In the old world, the good fearing man didn't rely on the government or laws to tell him what he needed to, he knew.

You're starting from the premise that any existing God must be omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect. It doesn't. In fact, many cultures have gods that are fucking awful. Greek mythology is full of them.

This isn't a proof of anything except that a particular type of God doesn't exist - and even then, we could argue that he's so far above us, we just can't understand his workings.

No God.

I discuss my utter lack of faith with friends and family, partly because they also have an absence of faith. Or they do have faith, and want to challenge me on my conviction. I ask them why there is a God. There has been some very interesting discussions.

I have no religious faith as per organised religion but I found faith in a higher power.

To my mind there is a universal higher order from which all of life and matter has sprung and I have no idea how that possibly works.

But as long as I accept that there is a power higher than me, outside of me, that means the sun will rise and the sun will set with no influence over what I think, feel, believe, do, or don't do, then I know that I am powerless and there is a power higher than me, outside of me, beyond me.

But as long as I accept that there is a power higher than me, outside of me, that means the sun will rise and the sun will set with no influence over what I think, feel, believe, do, or don't do, then I know that I am powerless and there is a power higher than me, outside of me, beyond me.

The laws of physics suffice for the sun rising and setting etc. As for being 'powerless' though - while what we can do is limited, we have agency and ability to do or not do some things. Scientists can't stop all disease just like that, but we can work to find preventions and cures. We can't stop tsunamis but we can develop early warning systems to mitigate loss of life. Humanly weak, sure - but it's a cop out to say we're 'powerless', isn't it?

No bad thing? Depends what your guidelines say?
What if they say be mean to women and gay people?

Not in my book it's not a cop out.

It's a life saving spiritual belief system in which I trust in the power of nature and that which is true over and above science and man made theories - religion being a man made theory in which I don't believe.

I accept other peoples religions and belief systems and I accept total atheism and agnosticism because I only care about what I think and what gets me through the day.

Before I developed and acknowledged some form of spiritual belief system I was suicidally depressed (and acting on it) and killing myself with substance addiction. I once thought science, maths, and medicine, etc could explain everything in existence and the more you knew and researched the more agency you had. Now I know that's garbage. I don't really care what anyone else has to say about my personal belief system.

What other people believe is none of my business. (< Good AA saying there)

@Moonmelodies
"No bad thing? Depends what your guidelines say?
What if they say be mean to women and gay people?"

My religion says love the neighbour as thyself. I've never been to church and been encouraged to be mean to women and gay people.

Even as a child in a Catholic school I thought it made more sense for people to worship the sun, which they could see, or things from nature over our beliefs!
Making us all do GCSE religion backfired, the more we learned about other religions and paganism the less sense following one path ( Catholicism) made to us!

Am an atheist now. As are most of my old school
mates. 🥸😜

We didn't come from chimps.
We share a common ancestor.
Quite different.

I think that god and religion is all just a metaphor for all the stuff that's too big for humans to get their head around. We work better if we can press things into a shape and pattern that we recognise and understand.

You're very lucky.
Many people's religions do tell them to be mean to women, to gay people, to cut bits off babies, etc.

There is no imaginary man in the sky. It hasnt been scientifically proved. Its all ancient hearsay.

Just like there is no tooth fairy or Santa Claus.

there is no tooth fairy or Santa Claus.

Wait...what?

When I read about God being omnipotent, omniscient and all the rest of it, but still allowing horrible things to happen - I get a bit mad at the explanation (excuse) that God also gave the perpetrators of this evil FREE WILL. That to me is a huge cop out for the cock up by a supposedly benevolent God. And what about the natural disasters and illnesses, whose FREE WILL caused that?

So God gave all these rules and tenets, but hey he can't do anything about it if things go wrong, but he still means business. OKaaay.

Any religion out there founded by a woman? I don't think so and that says it all for me about religion, the zenith of mysogony keeps all religions going it seems.

Anyway what about the Devil? Now there's someone who needs a poll as to whether he exists or not.

You're partly right.

Yes, the proof I offered just demonstrates that a particular kind of deity - the one the churches and mosques are all built for - doesn't exist. As I think I said, just based on that there could still be ignorant, impotent, or immoral gods around. (Kind of like characters in a Marvel comic? Okay. Hmm.) You're right about that.

You should beware of the "we just can't understand" line of thought, however. The proof worked in logic. If there's more to it than (human?) logic, then ... Hold on! ... you better not do an 'if ... then' like that once you step outside logic, because any such 'if ... then' (or 'so ...', etc.) commits you to the very logic you just denied.

I quite like that point; the way what you are trying to do itself denies the possibility of its own success. It's a bit like the way any attempt to relativise truth denies its own possibility: it cannot really be true that there is no real truth, can it?

Interesting, anyway, how the logic of proof intersects theology. No?

Please tell me you are joking?

@NotObligedToArgueWithStrangers "We work better if we can press things into a shape and pattern that we recognise and understand."

I disagree. I think we work better if we learn to understand the shape and pattern that things fit in without forcing them....

I think a lot of Christian churches teach that it is the devil who is working evil in the world.

I was christened as it was the thing to do ( Grandparents believed in god/excuse for a party/wanted to waste the reverends time). I don't believe in god. Never have.