Note: This is a very condensed version of a nine-page critical paper for my "World Religions" class. Most of the paper is supporting evidence. If you would like to read the whole thing please Email me and I will be happy to send it to you
Perhaps one of the most provocative things ever printed on the back of a
Honda was the bumper-sticker, “My
god can kick your god’s
ass, and with three arms behind her back.” This simple and rousing sentence conveys the diversity of beliefs in the world, something that many people forget. The vast array of deities that man can think up is staggering. But the fact that man has invented deities to fulfill the need for reason shows that man is superior to his god(s). Man has always been afraid of the unknown. When at one time this covered the entire natural world, science has eaten away at the realm of gods. Modern
science has explained many of the things once thought to be acts of god(s). We now know that
lighting is the discharge of static
electrons built up under certain atmospheric conditions. Not many people still think that lighting is the result of
Zeus on
Mount Olympus tossing
thunderbolts; science has disproved this idea, as it has with many others.
Anyway, to get back to the topic at hand: The only way a god can have influence in society is either through its followers or through direct acts. There have been few documented and confirmed cases of acts of god, and then chance and man himself plays a major role. So a god’s only influence is through it’s followers carrying out its will. If one day all the followers for a given god woke up and decided they no longer believed in god X and it was all a big misunderstanding of a popular cake recipie; then god X would have lost all influence over that society. Since man invented god, and gave god power in his life and over society in general then man can take that power away through non-belief. A contractual agreement of sorts exists between a god and its church. The god provides security and meaning and in return the god gets influence over daily life. Of course I portray gods as beings, when in fact they are nothing more than abstract socio-mental constructions that exist in the minds of people. Without faith, or belief in the idea of "god", it simply ceases to exist and thus one can witness the death of a god.
Conclusion in a nutshell: Man created gods, therefore man is superior to his god(s).
On a side note: I also addressed in the original paper why one can not prove the non-existence of god as an actual meta-physical being. Quite simply, it is a logical impossibility to prove a negative; that is to prove the non-existence of anything. One can only prove a positive.
mblase does have a point, but I did not post my entire nine-page paper of supporting evidence and philosiphies because I did not think anyone would want to sit here and read it. This is simply the conclusion I have drawn from my readings and research. This node was never intended to be a debate so please do not treat it as such. I had confidence that Noders know better than to treat write-ups as replies to the original comment. Also, it seems that whenever a controversial node is created it is down-voted simply because people do not like having their beliefs challenged. I urge you to vote on the content of a node, not what it is saying but how it's being said. If you still think something is shit then by all means...