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.

Do you think Christian girls don't get an education? @Burntoutbetty

They get it despite of religion not because of it.

hmmm

Many terrorist attacks are also done because people think they’re better than others, think they’ve been wronged by individuals, companies or countries. Revenge is a strong part of being human, for some. Whereas those who believe in God are more likely to ‘give it to
God’.

I don’t have the answers. I don’t think anyone does. That’s why I think we should decide what’s best for us and then move on.

I agree with you that for some the default human nature is to compete with others. For others, being happy with your lot and doing what you can for others is enough.

If you want a list of old-style gods, H. L. Mencken is a good starting place. See for example Funeral March: "Where is the graveyard of dead gods? ..."

"... Huitzilopochtli, like many other gods, had no human father; his mother was a virtuous widow; he was born of an apparently innocent flirtation that she carried on with the sun. When he frowned, his father, the sun, stood still. When he roared with rage, earthquakes engulfed whole cities. When he thirsted he was watered with 10,000 gallons of human blood. ...

"... Speaking of Huitzilopochtli recalls his brother, Tezcatilpoca. Tezcatilpoca was almost as powerful: He consumed 25,000 virgins a year. Lead me to his tomb: I would weep, and hang a couronne des perles. But who knows where it is? Or where the grave of Quitzalcontl is? Or Tialoc? Or Chalchihuitlicue? Or Xiehtecutli? Or Centeotl, that sweet one? Or Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love? Or Mictlan? Or Ixtlilton? Or Omacatl? Or Yacatecutli? Or Mixcoatl? Or Xipe? Or all the host of Tzitzimitles? Where are their bones? Where is the willow on which they hung their harps? In what forlorn and unheard of hell do they await the resurrection morn? Who enjoys their residuary estates? Or that of Dis, whom Caesar found to be the chief god of the Celts? Or that of Tarves, the bull? Or that of Moccos, the pig? Or that of Epona, the mare? Or that of Mullo, the celestial jack-ass? There was a time when the Irish revered all these gods ..."

A few more? ...

"Dagda
Robigus
Pluto
Ops
Meditrina
Vesta
Tilmun
Ogyrvan
Dea Dia
Ceros
Vaticanus
Edulia
Adeona
Iuno Lucina
Saturn
Furrina
Vediovis
Consus
Cronos
Enki
Engurra
Belus
Dimmer
Mu-ul-lil
Ubargisi
Ubilulu
Gasan lil
U-dimmer-an-kia
Enurestu
U-sab-sib"

... And so on. And so on.

Often people say, regarding their children, something along the lines of, "I don't want to tell them what to believe; I think they should be taught about different religions and then left to make their own minds up."

Similar thoughts are often expressed about R. E. in schools.

I'm still waiting for someone to mention Huitzilopochtli or any of the others in this regard.

I told my children the truth. Religions (plural) are nonsense - all of them. (Sometimes interesting nonsense, to be sure, but nonsense all the same.) We'd all be better off without them. My children grew up to be happy, successful, and - I dare assert - decent moral people who smile at the superstitious beliefs of theists (of all stripes).

They do say that the best way to raise an atheist is to send them to a Catholic school

Someone should write a song...

This very true I had every Catholic education including nuns
I'm agnostic rather than atheist ,my son also went to catholic schools and decided he was atheist.

There's a whole design with everything and good and evil that you can literally see just by stepping out your front door. This must have come from somewhere.

Why must it have come from somewhere?

What is the evil that you see everywhere?

Apologies if it's already been said as I've only just started reading the thread, but this idea is explored by Terry Pratchett in one of his books. The gods (lower case because they're small gods) cease to exist when people stop believing in them, and pop into being when they do.

Certainly a belief that we can't be alone, when looking at the vastness of the skies, and the beauty of nature would be a reasonable basis to 'need' a higher power. However the whole concept of women being lesser can only be from human minds. Ditto the justification of incest, rape and murder that is in a particular holy book.

If there is a divine being then they lost interest in us very quickly, I'd suggest.

Please no - it would be a fucking awfUl dirge that unimaginably dull twats would keep citing as the greatest song ever.

Nope.
That's your perception of the world.

The Tory party mainly.

But where did the creator come from?
Did they just spring into existence from nothingness? Or do they have a creator?

I don't believe at all, but we are clearly hardwired to want to believe in something bigger than ourselves, with supernatural powers. I would wager that belief in Gods has been helpful to our species overall.

THIS THIS THIS!!!

I find it so hard to stomach Christian's talking about their merciful God when I see babies bodies being pulled from earthquakes.
Or as a nurse in PiCU seeing mothers distraught that their children are dying.

I grew up with a catholic mother saying "these trials are sent to test us!"

No merciful being would allow this stuff to happen.

Whether or not their are entities in the universe that we would consider as gods is unknowable in my opinion. If there are, I think they'd be beyond our comprehension.

But religion to me seems to be all about the idea that one of those beings does exists and that it has a specific interest in whether we believe and how we behave.
But that's such a strange concept to me. It would be like a human taking an interest in an ant colony and then punishing them when they don't wear a condom during sex.

At best organised religion is an insurance bet against the possibility the above is true, but more likely it is just a way of controlling populations. I think this is backed up by the fact that humans moved away from worshipping conceptual deities like nature and fertility to worshiping human-like gods and goddesses right around the time we changed from being hunter gatherers to farmers and needed large populations to stay put and behave.

I've also always found the timeline and location issues difficult to overcome. As in how can a Christian or Muslim look at older religions, like Hinduism or Judaism, that have existed for thousands of years before they did, and then dismiss them as the wrong religion or how do they square the fact that your geographical location plays a huge part in which religion you deem as being the "correct" one.

I also think that the vast majority of religious people do not really believe in their religion. If they truly believed there was an all knowing, all powerful being waiting to judge their immortal soul at the end of this life they'd be a lot better behaved, or paralysed by fear considering how contradictory their holy texts tend to be, but the fact that the just ignore the bits they don't like or reinterpret them to suit the society they're operating in proves there is doubt deep down to me.

I agree. I also think some people think going to church or worshiping god means they can behave however they like towards other people. I have a relative who has been unpleasant to me over the years and broke up 2 marriages. They follow the Christian faith and have helped out in the local community on certain projects but they have behaved awfully towards various people over the years. I don’t understand it at all.

Not everyone who attends church is a good person. You can get the best and the worst of humans in church .

Stephen Fry sums up how I feel about God

This is exactly what I thought. I thought religion was for children as a nice fairytale and for the old as a crutch. So when I went to church because my dh wanted our kids to be christened and this was part of the deal, I was gobsmacked that all around me sang with such conviction and the highly intelligent, educated ministers clearly believed this nonsense too. It didn't make sense to me, at all

I'm now a Christian of many years. There's plenty of academics and scholars who have questioned the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it's not like it's never been examined and scrutinised, and have come to believe. Scientists who see no conflict between science and the notion of God: the opposite really as the move closer to the mind of God.

But that was only partly why I became a Christian. Once I said a grudging and reluctant "yes" to the existence of God, I had a powerful encounter and that's not something you explain away. Once it happens, it's life-changing.

Maybe this partly explains why faith just will not go away even though we are so much more sophisticated and clever now.

The creator, of course, created itself; it made itself be; caused itself to exist.

This unusual capacity, of being the cause of itself, is something I have recently been interested to hear is now also to be found on railways in Britain: "This [last-minute change in the timetable]," announces the woman on the station tannoy, "Is due to a last-minute change in the timetable."

It's not possible for the universe itself to be self-causing, as any priest or vicar (or imam or mufti or granthi, whatever ... have to be inclusive these days!) will tell you: being the cause of itself is an attribute restricted just to certain gods and train delays. Some people think that's obvious. (Though not me.)

Maybe this partly explains why faith just will not go away even though we are so much more sophisticated and clever now

I wouldn't expect it to ever vanish completely, but I don't think it's coincidence either that decline in religiosity tends to go hand-in-hand with rising education levels and economic prosperity. There are obvious outliers like the USA where declaring agnosticism or atheism can cause social and career death, or perhaps Japan where religion is more of a cultural identity rather than a personal choice, but nonetheless, religion is prospering in the 3rd world while it declines in northern and central Europe at the same time.

You can argue about the reasons for this, but I don't think it's particularly difficult to understand that people who are stressed by penury, disease, wars etc, might be a bit more inclined to "faith" that supernatural elements might intercede and make their lives a bit better.

The former DDR is an interesting case. At one point the least religious place on the planet, again, it's open to conjecture exactly why, but religion isn't showing any sign of making a comeback despite the DDR having been consigned to the dustbin of history 30+ years ago. I think that's curious from the perspective that once people dispense with the notion of divinity, the sky doesn't fall in, and it doesn't appear to be particularly missed.

https://youtube.com/@AylesburyVYFC?si=A3jahHQ8YxAe_6m0. Scientists etc talking about why they believe. Series is ongoing until next year. Of course they'll have an agenda though. That's why you have to weigh up the evidence for yourself. There is strong historical evidence for events in the bible, and many people claim they experience god's presence.