“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.” Albert Einstein
Gods are invisible and secretive agents, projections of the human mind. Gods assume many forms and there is little agreement about what they look like, where they live, their likes and dislikes. God is polymorphic, numerous and noumenal. Humans include Gods in their stories that attempt to explain how things got started and who controls events that happen. Some create a God who is interested in petty gossip and enjoys punishing people who have erotic fantasies. Many Gods are angry and punitive but some Gods act like benevolent parents and friendly counselors. In the past, some Gods were friendly only if you killed innocent children or fair maidens as sacrifices. Somehow, the Gods who enjoyed killing humans are no longer as popular as they once were. There is a close connection between God and blood in the human mind. Humans kill to eat and indulge in a curious fascination with spilling blood. Religious rituals all over the planet, presumably for thousands of years have involved killing animals and fellow humans, eating their flesh, collecting and offering their blood to satisfy the bloodlust of their God. Christian communion still involves eating the blood and flesh of Christ.
Pollsters ask: do you believe in God? They report a percentage of people who answer yes. The question and its answer are meaningless. There is neither a single God nor any consistent belief. Each religious group claims a special relationship with God, a unique history, moral superiority and special privileges. Christianity, Islam and Judaism are religious organizations that claim that their God is the one and only God. They discriminate against each other and distain people and organizations who have a different version of God or who have many Gods or no God. No one can agree on God’s location and characteristics. God turns out to have multiple forms and contradictory characteristics. In the best case, the notion of one God is based on a distant parent grown large. In the worst case, God is another despot, supported by an intelligence agency in the sky with filing cabinets full of records on everyone who has ever lived.
While there is no real evidence for a resident, man-like God who is interested in what humans do, many religious organizations invent God as the source of their moral authority. They promote local franchises, complete with beliefs and rituals to suit their political and economic purposes. The bloody battles of the past among religious organizations recur to this day and promise to continue as long as these groups hold to their exclusive and anachronistic beliefs.
Smart and nice people thrive without believing in a Santa-Claus version of God who is keeping his list and checking it twice.
Some people have denied the existence of God and placed themselves at a disadvantage when confronted by self-righteous individuals who have God on their side. As visiting anthropologists, we recognize that belief in one or more Gods and membership in a religious organization are social commitments with social benefits. Beliefs have little or nothing to do with truth or understanding how humans and the universe work. Everyone is free to invent his or her own God and create group inclusion and exclusion rules. When everyone has adopted a personal God, then everyone is free to claim the moral authority that God offers true believers. Without this egalitarian distribution of God’s authority, people with a sense of moral superiority remain a serious problem for rational citizens who champion a free, civil society. Everyone should be free to engage God in their own way.
In my infrequent conversations with God, she informs me that she has a strict non-interference policy toward planet earth. None of her people are allowed near our planet. She stated: “Earth is an experiment in life and spontaneity… I like to watch occasionally, but never intervene. I have no preferences. “
There are social benefits when you belong to a religious organization: affiliation with other members, regular meetings, picnics, rituals and assistance coping with three key events of a human life- birth, marriage and death. However, the social and political benefits of belonging to a religious organization override any inclination to self-determination and freedom. Religious beliefs are local, idiosyncratic and relative to the members of the group with no enduring or universal value. Some have argued that retiring religious beliefs (delusions) is a prerequisite for progress toward a rational and humane future. The problem is that beliefs are fixed and enduring attributes of local groups and can only be changed by progress within these groups. Membership in a religious organization limits freedom and expression of thought and often disables friendly, intelligent interaction with other groups.
From Existence and the Human Mind An Exploration in Contemporary Science and Philosophy
By Stephen J. Gislason MD
Gods are invisible and secretive agents, projections of the human mind. Gods assume many forms and there is little agreement about what they look like, where they live, their likes and dislikes. God is polymorphic, numerous and noumenal. Humans include Gods in their stories that attempt to explain how things got started and who controls events that happen. Some create a God who is interested in petty gossip and enjoys punishing people who have erotic fantasies. Many Gods are angry and punitive but some Gods act like benevolent parents and friendly counselors. In the past, some Gods were friendly only if you killed innocent children or fair maidens as sacrifices. Somehow, the Gods who enjoyed killing humans are no longer as popular as they once were. There is a close connection between God and blood in the human mind. Humans kill to eat and indulge in a curious fascination with spilling blood. Religious rituals all over the planet, presumably for thousands of years have involved killing animals and fellow humans, eating their flesh, collecting and offering their blood to satisfy the bloodlust of their God. Christian communion still involves eating the blood and flesh of Christ.
Pollsters ask: do you believe in God? They report a percentage of people who answer yes. The question and its answer are meaningless. There is neither a single God nor any consistent belief. Each religious group claims a special relationship with God, a unique history, moral superiority and special privileges. Christianity, Islam and Judaism are religious organizations that claim that their God is the one and only God. They discriminate against each other and distain people and organizations who have a different version of God or who have many Gods or no God. No one can agree on God’s location and characteristics. God turns out to have multiple forms and contradictory characteristics. In the best case, the notion of one God is based on a distant parent grown large. In the worst case, God is another despot, supported by an intelligence agency in the sky with filing cabinets full of records on everyone who has ever lived.
While there is no real evidence for a resident, man-like God who is interested in what humans do, many religious organizations invent God as the source of their moral authority. They promote local franchises, complete with beliefs and rituals to suit their political and economic purposes. The bloody battles of the past among religious organizations recur to this day and promise to continue as long as these groups hold to their exclusive and anachronistic beliefs.
Smart and nice people thrive without believing in a Santa-Claus version of God who is keeping his list and checking it twice.
Some people have denied the existence of God and placed themselves at a disadvantage when confronted by self-righteous individuals who have God on their side. As visiting anthropologists, we recognize that belief in one or more Gods and membership in a religious organization are social commitments with social benefits. Beliefs have little or nothing to do with truth or understanding how humans and the universe work. Everyone is free to invent his or her own God and create group inclusion and exclusion rules. When everyone has adopted a personal God, then everyone is free to claim the moral authority that God offers true believers. Without this egalitarian distribution of God’s authority, people with a sense of moral superiority remain a serious problem for rational citizens who champion a free, civil society. Everyone should be free to engage God in their own way.
In my infrequent conversations with God, she informs me that she has a strict non-interference policy toward planet earth. None of her people are allowed near our planet. She stated: “Earth is an experiment in life and spontaneity… I like to watch occasionally, but never intervene. I have no preferences. “
There are social benefits when you belong to a religious organization: affiliation with other members, regular meetings, picnics, rituals and assistance coping with three key events of a human life- birth, marriage and death. However, the social and political benefits of belonging to a religious organization override any inclination to self-determination and freedom. Religious beliefs are local, idiosyncratic and relative to the members of the group with no enduring or universal value. Some have argued that retiring religious beliefs (delusions) is a prerequisite for progress toward a rational and humane future. The problem is that beliefs are fixed and enduring attributes of local groups and can only be changed by progress within these groups. Membership in a religious organization limits freedom and expression of thought and often disables friendly, intelligent interaction with other groups.
From Existence and the Human Mind An Exploration in Contemporary Science and Philosophy
By Stephen J. Gislason MD
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