Is God real?

I'll be speaking from a Christian point of view for this post, more specifically LDS.

One of the important factors of God is there cannot be a definitive way to prove to any individual without a doubt of God's existence. If such factual proof existed, then people lose agency, an ability to decide for themselves. An important part of life is the ability to choose, but knowing for a surety of God's existence means that all must surely follow God's commandments no matter what. People can no longer decide on whether they want to follow the commandments or not because God knows best. Agency is lost because all know for certain who God is and all know that God is right so everyone must follow the rules because it would be beyond idiotic at that point not to.

I hope that wasn't too confusing. The reason for that explanation is to show why religions look dumb in the light of pure logic. If God's existence could just be proven with pure logic, then everyone would be very limited in their ability to make decisions. For this reason, there will be bits of logic which don't seem to make sense for an atheist, but it could very well be because God cannot fully prove himself to exist by logic.

To all who doubt, good luck finding which side is true to you! Decide which religion has God the way you think him most likely to be like, try the religion out about, and see if you find it to be true. Just avoid cults, as they're really terrible.

 

Let us bring up the ancient Egyptians, who believed in a polytheistic faith so zealously that they erected hundreds of monuments which still stand to this very day. The ancient Egyptian religion existed from the 31st century BC to the 5th century AD, at the very most. This is much, much longer than Christianity has lasted to this day (1.75 times longer, to be exact). Yet, today, as a society, we almost unanimously believe that the ancient Egyptian religion is nonsense. Apart from a very small number of neopagans (Kemetic Orthodoxy), the Egyptian religion is considered completely imaginary. We do not mummify anyone nowadays, we do not build gigantic statues of our leaders, etc.,

But why do we consider their religion, which they honoured and adored so fervently, hogwash? Because there's no evidence for any of their gods existing. But this is also a result of the Roman conversion to Christianity. Polytheistic religions, Greco-Roman paganism specifically, assimilated the Egyptian gods into their own pantheon (Serapis for the Ptolemaic dynasty, Isis made her way into the Roman pantheon). If the Romans had never converted to Christianity, you, the reader of this post, would certainly not be Christian today. But allow us to travel further in time, to Mesoamerica.

The Aztec Triple Alliance believed zealously in a religion that also drove them to build many tributes to their deities à la the Egyptians. Human sacrifice was extremely common in the Aztec polytheistic beliefs, which trusted that sacrificing people to their gods would lead to certain benefits on earth (such as increased productivity of crops). According to modern science, killing somebody has no effect on anything like that. And just like with the ancient Egyptians, nobody believes in that religion anymore. Why? Because there's no proof that they exist.

So, what's the point of all of these anecdotes? Billions of people have believed in gods over the years, the vast majority of which are dismissed by society as made-up and completely fictional now. We can laugh at the silly beliefs of those ancient Romans pre-Christianity, ignoring the fact that we ourselves share those beliefs with religions today.

Right, but that goes for every religion in history. We have no proof that any god exists. What, in your opinion, makes Christianity better than any of the native American religions? Why shouldn't I believe in one of those instead of Christianity?

I can tell you about one of the reasons that made Christianity attractive to people when the majority of the Roman Empire was still pagan. For one, people were going through a century of political instability, poverty, and general problems. They were praying to these pagan gods, but nothing was happening (by the way, even Christian prayer has been analysed scientifically and has proven to do nothing). So they decided to convert because Christianity told them that they would be happier after they died, that there was something after that would take away the pain of their lives right now.

There is more. Christianity is a large admixture of all kinds of ancient religions and customs. That's right, even certain aspects of pagan beliefs were assimilated into Christian rituals, ceremonies, and whatnot, in order to make it more attractive for converts. The halos which you see flying above saints are Egyptian sun-disks. Features like the Immaculate Conception, Jesus's resurrection, and even the eating of his body and blood as bread and wine are all parts of pagan religions which were popular in the time of Jesus. 25 December is celebrated by Christians, but before Christianity, it was the birthdate of the central god in Mithraism, a religion practised in the Roman Empire. That god, Mithras, was also buried and came back to life after three days. Why does Christianity have so many similarities to religions popular in the days when it was yet a fledgling new faith trying to gain believers? Why is it unoriginal, and why does it appear to have strategically taken on beliefs from other religions?

Lastly, let me address your point that knowing that God is real would force everyone to become a Christian. So, you say that Christianity relies on the fact that it cannot be proven. Then, why did Jesus show himself to hundreds of people after his supposed resurrection? Why did he show himself to Paul and have a conversation with him? Reading the Bible will reveal that Paul's faith was deepened by Jesus's visit. Why, then, won't Jesus appear to all of us? If the Bible tells us that it's okay for him to appear to hundreds of people then, why won't he show himself to us now, when it's clearly completely acceptable for him to do so?

 

Why is this thread still open it's almost three years old .-.

 

where are the mozzarella sticks