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What somebody else said about it being the default position ... God seems to me, to be a taught concept designed to appeal to our emotions and sense of infallibility.

Once God is posited as the ultimate justification for everything, then there is no need to think further and everything becomes neatly packaged into the enormous blind spot in your mind far too many people think is God.

Remove the emotional aspects of God/religion, and what are you left with? hollow superstitions and empty rituals which serve no purpose other than to reassure the believer that he/she has a place that's important in the Universe.

And if that's not arrogance, then I don't know what is ...

fishbulb

Not only that, but the number of distinct groups of believers who believe substantially different things about god is absolutely staggering. Even the meagre sample provided on this forum does much to demonstrate the sheer diversity of conflicting beliefs about god.

What is really fascinating is that, despite the incredible number of contradictory beliefs and the lack of hard, objective evidence to provide anything more than token support to any of them, believers overwhelmingly remain confident, if not sanguine, that their particular beliefs are correct. It seems that each has concluded that faith alone has led him to the right answer, even though it has misled most everyone else.

What causes this? Arrogance? Gullibility? Perhaps a simple unwillingless to take a critical look at cherished beliefs? Some people say (for example) that almost everyone is going to hell. Some people say that no one is going to hell. Others say that only certain people are destined to end up there, though they cannot agree on which. Some say that there is no such thing as hell. At a minimum, most of these people must be wrong. What is it that makes any individual believer think that he is not part of this group?

BlessNot

Good point. As far as humans are concerned, we are the only creatures that is cursed with a clear reality of our own mortality.

That is why it is natural and understandable that we would seek to find ways to do away with our fears by inventing religious beliefs in order to persurade and convince ourselves to some level so that we could escape this fate. The doctrine of heaven and the afterlife is one such belief.

Biff the unclean

I am an Atheist because I don't want to follow god's loving plan. I prefer to live a life of debauchery and depravity doing what I please with a total disregard for morals. In fact when the interns get back here from lunch I believe I will chop one of them up and save the best parts in the freezer for diner tonight.

sophie

Jobar : Babble. It is people who convolute the concept. You claim the concept is incoherent because from your experience no two theists with whom you've interacted believe in exactly the same God. The various concepts are only incoherent because your mind does not have enough bandwidth to parse all the data. So this does not qualify as a reason. The paradox is clear.

sophie

Biff the unclean : Cannibal? You are quite facinating?

Biff the unclean

Isn't that what you always expected? Didn't you always think that if you caught an Atheist in an unguarded moment they would let it slip?

But it's okay. The Intern in question is Jewish so everything is kosher. It's just too bad that we are allowed meat on Fridays now so I am deprived of another evil pleasure.

If you'll excuse me I have to look in the store room to see if we have any blunt objects

sophie

Biff the unclean : I thought they would have tried to show how they know omniGOD themselves.

I worked someplace once, and they tried to push fish down my throat Fridays. To avoid them I took eggs in the morning and lunched out.

life of Brian?

Biff the unclean

I thought they would have tried to show how they know omniGOD themselves.

I do know him. The same way I know Tarzan, Superman, and Harry Potter. I've read the novels these "super heroes" are characters in. They are all fun, but not to be taken seriously. Of them all the best writing is in J.K. Rowling's work. Superman and God are tied for plot flaws because the characters have all of these superpowers but never live up to the potential that such powers would imply. Edgar Rice Burroughs becomes more fun because he is able to use his characters limitations to enhance the drama and he never contradicts himself like God's authors did. I think Burroughs wrote outlines first and kept them on a chalkboard in his office. That's how he kept track.

sophie

Biff the unclean : But surely if you had taken the effort to construct a rel-life timeline, you may have construed that the best is yet to come.

However please don't hold your breath on my account.