ancient story: a
traditional story about heroes or supernatural beings, often attempting
to explain the origins of natural phenomena or aspects of human
behavior
I am often asked from people who read my blog or comments on Google why I capitalize the word god when referring to the biblical deity. The main reason I do that is to differentiate the Judeao-Christian deity from all the others. But upon reflection of this I realized that by doing so I give that particular deity an unearned privilege and place above all the other deities that man has rejected.
It is a known fact that man throughout his history has created for himself literally thousands of gods or supernatural beings. Worldwide, all of these gods have been attached to a particular people or culture and they all have powers that help those people to understand their world. Also, these imagined beings help provide for the needs of those people and societies in exchange for one thing: worship! They all want sacrifice, they all want to be praised, and they all want to be recognized as the strongest and most powerful of all the gods.
Even the biblical deity tries to separate himself from other gods in the so called inspired book but in the process ends up contradicting himself.
“You shall have no other gods before me. Genesis 20:3 (NIV).
Does this imply that there are other gods? If not then why make a commandment prohibiting the worship of other gods. Taken literally you can only conclude that there are other gods, but taken from the point of historical fact, these other gods are just the ones man has created for himself, this includes Yahweh.
This is what the Lord says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty:I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Isaiah 44:6 (NIV).
As you can see the biblical deity once again tries to distinguish himself from all the other gods when in reality he too is just another creation of man. This verse is one of many which serve the purpose of propaganda. The bible is chock full of self promotion.
Just to give you all an idea of how many gods man has created I urge you to take a look at this link where they are listed. Of course the list is exhaustive but at the same time it confirms my assertions and is by no means a complete list. http://www.rationalresponders.com/a_big_list_of_gods_but_nowhere_near_all_of_them
The definition of myth as defined at the beginning of this article articulates my feelings about all gods both ancient and modern. When it comes to the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas or any other so called divinely inspired or holy texts they are all just stories and are described perfectly in the definition above.
It seems that in the West there is a particular prejudice against any religion or god that is not the deity of preference. But this prejudice is not unique to the United States but is quite widespread the world over. The country or culture into which you are born in usually dictates which god you will believe in.
History has shown us that man created the gods and continue to do so even today. So for an atheist like myself to state that there definitely is no god is in my view rational and backed by historical evidence in favor of this proposition.
The mystery is why any of the god myths survive.
ReplyDeleteVirtually all children see the fallacies of Santa Claus, the easter bunny, the tooth fairy and the great pumpkin on their own, usually before the age of 8 or 9 years; yet many (or most) otherwise rational adults persist in the belief of, and subservience to, their particular gods even into their graves.
There are many reasons why god myths survive. Some people are conditioned early in life to accept god myths from family, friends, and the society in which they grow up in. Others like myself found the biblical god during a time of weakness where I felt I have exhausted all means of helping myself out of a bad situation.
DeleteReligions today prey on those that are facing turmoil and discomfort in their lives. Those are the best subjects to instill your god myths into. It's like the guy consoling the pretty girl who just got dumped, he becomes her support and often times the rebound guy.
Another reason why the god myth still survives after 2000 years of history is largely due to church propaganda that instills fear and submission in the people. Eternal torment in the fires of hell makes believers kowtow to their higher authority.The media is also responsible for continuously spreading these myths over and over again; be it Xmas or Easter which in truth are pagan festivities.
ReplyDeleteAdolf Hitler once said that if you tell a big lie and tell it frequently enough,it will be believed. In this case he was right.
Excellent response Darren! Those are all good reasons for the persistence of Christianity at least in the U.S. The media bombards us with the goings on of the Catholic church and religious holidays. Movies and plays about the life and times of Jesus Christ abound. So called books written by religious proponents fill our book store shelves and we are bombarded by televangelist and Christian television programming on a daily basis.
DeleteFinally, fear is the greatest motive for keeping the populace subservient to religion. I like that you quoted Hitler I use his quotes a lot myself because I feel he understood better than anyone else in history the power of religion and propaganda.