AGA        Rationalising religion                    7 Nov 2006

I am probably attempting the impossible, but I will get as near to addressing the subject as I can.  It was recently announced that a psychology researcher had declared that the mind of man is set up to believe in the supernatural.  I can accept that premise without further proof.  Religiously minded souls will probably argue that this demonstrates the existence of God.  This is a statement with which I fundamentally disagree.

The existence or non-existence of God is a long-running argument.  I now to enter the fray, and declare my belief that proving the existence of God is an impossible task; that is, until He wishes to show Himself to us.  The fact that He has not made himself known to me, indicated that either he does not exist, or that He can't be bothered to tell me.  The former seems to be the most likely.  Therefore, I cannot prove either side of the argument.  But I feel that God, in the manner described by the three western faiths, is totally wrong.  But I am totally unable to prove that He does not exist.  So I will accept that God is real when it comes discussing what he is like because one cannot discuss the nature of something that does not exist.

Christian teaching states that God is infinite and all-powerful.  This, to me, is repeating oneself.  I do not accept that infinity can exist other than as a theoretical concept.  There are many things that are enormously larger than simple humans can handle, but they are NOT infinite.  Mathematicians have coined a notation that purports to handle infinity, but it is just admittinhg that it is something they cannot handle.  In science, everything has to have a name and a symbol.  So mathematicians use the symbol written like a figure 8 on its side.  (I searched this program for the symbol of infinity; it appears to be missing from he huge set that are offer).  Religionist may say that I am only a human with the inability to comprehend God.  I agree, but so are they.  So I think as a human being and argue as a human being.  If I were a superhuman, I might argue differently.

Now, start to think about the claims that Christianity makes.  To me they are unsustainable.  I won't repeat the various doctrine of the Church, they are broadly known by all adults in Britain.

"God brought the universe into existence".  Have you considered what this statement means?  Cosmologists say that the limit of the visible universe is about 3.1 million light years.  And there seems to be a lot beyond that that we cannot see with our present technology.  Light travels at 186,000 miles per second.  How many seconds are there in a year?  The distance is so mind-boggling that we can forget about the precise size of the place we live in.  It's just immense!

So "God is running this cosmos", we are told.  "And He cares about us".   Personally, I believe that there will be a small number of civilisations a bit like ours, in other parts of the cosmos.  But we are so infinitesimal in the greater order of things, that to cite the statement "that He cares for us", to me, is pure nonsense.  Where is the evidence? Millions die in horrible agony by earthquakes and tsunami year on year, is this the intention of the Creator?  Well, He runs theplace!

I have recently read (or tried to read) an essay explaining why suffering is inflicted on mankind.  The wording is so convoluted that I am simply unable to understand the argument.  Perhaps this shows my poor intelligence, or more likely, it shows that one cannot really justify the claim that suffering is good for us.

It is generally agreed that the priests of old used the weakness of the masses to impose their ideas upon their society.  You can see this currently in Iraq  where the masses follow the evil teachings of some mullahs.  The teachings of western religious leaders are more sophisticated, but are still based upon flawed fundamental doctrine of the past.

What tends to muddy the water is that some of these edicts are manifestly good.  The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth have many good points, but I believe that even his basis was flawed.  Things like "the meek shall inherit the earth" was probably a political statement that has been twisted by more recent priests into a way of keeping the prols in their place.

Finally, if there is a God, why did He set up so many religions.  If He wants us to worship him, He must be a megalomaniac. And I don't believe that.  If He exists, He must be content with sceptics like me preaching as I do.  Or, perhaps, He just does not exist!

As I said earlier, I am not an atheist as I cannot prove that "there is no god", it's just that everything I know points to that conclusion.  But have a look at http://www.counterorder.com/belief.html  and you will get a much more reasoned argument that i am able to make