I’ve been trying to think a bit more on the ‘god concept’…

As an early note, some of you have probably thought of this already along with me.  If so, good for you, but I’m going to say it anyway.

I’ve always been the kind of person that tries to nitpick details about any topic of interest to me as well as try to get an understanding on how things work (only 5 years ago did I learn I could apply that to religion as well, and I’m happy I did, but I’m sure you all know that’s a given by now :P)

We all (at least non-theists) know how the concept of a god was invented by ancient people who didn’t understand how the world worked.  You know the drill: earthquakes, rain, sun movements and so on and they attributed that to a god.

There have been many cultures with many religions.  Each have their own pantheon they attributed the, then, unknown workings of the world to.  One of the things that got me questioning my religion is the perspective behind this.  Every religion has their own creation story, each one has their own set of gods, each one has their own history meticulously tailored to have their gods be the better one’s than the ‘other guy’s’ and so on.  But we already know this.

I like to take a deeper look at these kinds of things (and if I’m rambling by this point, I apologize, but I have to address these first, even if it is ad nauseum by now).  Instead of just saying ‘there’s no evidence’ or ‘this evidence is fake’, I like to ask why.  Why would evidence be fake for a so-called ‘true religion’ – why would it *need* it if it is supposed to be history.  Why would there be a need for something as paltry as ‘faith’ if there actually a god who had a problem with people not thinking it was behind everything and so on. So, when I thought about the ignorance behind the people that invented these invisible, absentee gods, I also thought about the ‘moral guide god’.  More than just ‘why would a god that created an infinite universe full of planets, stars and so one care about what one specie upon one planet does with their sex lives’, I began to think about why humans needed a ‘moral guide’ when we actually make up our own rules.  If values and morals can differ between religions, cultures and time periods, then morality is not universal (especially, in christianity’s case, when other religions profess similar teachings or values but are ‘evil’ because they do not worship yahweh or jesus, but that’s something entirely different), then isn’t it a bit convenient that everything these gods values is what the people who speak on its behalf value.

You may be saying ‘Hey, InfernalOne or, Anthony or whatever your name is, it’s because they invented these gods and imposed their ideas upon it, you idiot!  Stop being such a noob!’.  While that’s true, there’s another layer to it.  Look up the ‘documentary hypothesis’ if you haven’t.  It’s an 100+ year old historical record of how the jewish god evolved over the course of 400 years from a minor caananite god of war in a polytheistic pantheon to a rudimentary form of how he’s viewed today.  It goes through 4 major steps of hebrews writing material that they put in their god’s mouth, edited earlier old testament books and imposed their ideas and agendas onto this god in the process.  This is still happening today.  Every time science makes a breakthrough, suddenly, parts of the bible that opposed science become ‘metaphors’ by the apologists.  Many contemporary christians see yahweh’s laws as ‘humanity + god’s face plastered upon it’.  Various denominations of christians don’t even agree on their god’s nature or morals, but it amuses me how their idea of yahweh and jesus suits what they, themselves, value – the cherry-picking christian at its best.
I’m a moral nihilist.  Back when I was in college, I had to make a presentation on a topic of my choice that had to involve ‘conflict’.  I chose the way morality is a machination of humanity in order to control communities of people.  I also agree with Nietzsche when he says that gods are tools people use to impose their morality upon others.

But something hit me.In light of these past few concepts of how people, and even whole religions, can completely change the nature of a god and his values around to suit there needs, suddenly I saw that it was more than just ignorant people using the mysterious genie in the sky, a god is more like the mascot of a religion.  yahweh wasn’t just the got the hebrews invented, he WAS the hebrew race as a whole.  His values were their priests values, his nature changed when their nature changed – and always to what they changed to.  priests speak on behalf of a god almost like their wishes were the same – almost like they were the same thing.  the instant science makes a breakthrough, suddenly the christians try to append it to yahweh and distort the bible to say it, and, conveniently, yahweh is eerily on board with the change – but, amidst the twists and turns they make, the bible’s words don’t change.  I start to think a ‘god’ is the mascot of its worshipers – am image, a face of the people who try to flaunt it.
The strange thing is that it has similarities to Satanism in that people are making their ideals for themselves, but there is one key difference: Satanist don’t need a puppet or a mask in order to validate themselves or what they want.  I think it is high time humanity dispensed with the puppets and the masks and face reality for once in their lives.

On a side note: I have a very abridged and rather undetailed way of describing my deconversion from christianity to Agnosticism and later Agnostic Satanism – it goes ‘I was a christian, but then I turned 20’.  Although I did get ridicule for it once, that 20 was far too young for me to make choices, in which case I say ‘Better than deciding christianity was right just because I was brought up to think that way.’.  Even though it’s been 4 and a half years since my deconversion, I achieved more than I ever did and found out things I never would have learned without needing a ‘god’ to hold my hand like some surrogate father figure.  And that was what it was to me.  But I realized that I didn’t need it and that it was a burden in the long run, but, most importantly, it was all in my head.  The truly strong doesn’t need an invisible friend to make him feel better or fight his battles for him.
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