Stolen or plagiarized?
I can’t decide and I’m sorry if I’m guilty.
I swear it was done with good intentions and hardly any malice.
Something interesting happened….
It’s kind of a rip off from Voltaire, I think but, I read it in a book in the form of a philosophical dialog between a professor (Scott Hahn: “Reasons to Believe“) and a student who surmises, or close to it….
Student Statement: “If God hadn’t existed, or there was no such thing as God, mankind would have invented him, right?”
Professor Hahn: “If Atheism hadn’t existed, mankind would have invented it”
Student raises eyebrow ala Mr. Spock….
Professor Hahn continues: “I don’t know about you or what you believe but, the God I believe in is omnipotent, all knowing, all seeing, creator of the universe, terrible, wonderful, jealous, forgiving… The God I believe in is everything.”
I’ll take it from here…
Now, here’s the real question he’s putting forth to the student;
So, knowing mankind like we do, or think we do in our educated arrogance, of our having a little bit of an idea on the customs and lives of past civilizations, circa biblical Adam, Babel, Noah, Abraham and so forth; we can ask ourselves, who in their right mind would want to create a God that you cannot keep secrets from, hide from, get over on, hold you accountable for mistakes and judge you according to your deeds and days after your earthly sojourn has run its course?
You….?
Me….?
Of course this made me think and y’all know how much I hate to do that.
Who would create a God like that, from scratch?
That would be akin to picking your parents because you know for a fact that you won’t be able to lie to them or fool them, that they would require you to eat your vegetables and be nice to your sister or else you’ll get the hose, again…
And all you do is bitch and moan that they are too strict!
But, you created them!! Why would you make them like that!? AAIIIIEEEEEEE!!
Not only are you an early human being that has not been influenced by other humans, TV, radio, evangelists, music or a UFO Chariot of the God’s type of deal; maybe you don’t even know of a book, such as, say, a Bible…but, you go and create a God that makes you and all of your future progeny fear him, follow him, kill for him, die for him….
Believe? Surely not
Why would you do that?
Here is your thought experiment homework for the day;
Ping your replies and opinions to this post; I would love to see what you think. Please, no Spaghetti Monsters or sex gods. Serious insights only, please.
Light a candle or just an object or something you can focus on to concentrate.
Relax and step back behind you eyes and pretend that you have never known of a God, what a God is, how to create a God, why you even need a God and would anyone else believe in your God….
Add this paradox; There is no Bible, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Job, David and Goliath…no Jesus…
Nothing at all….yet.
Now, you are a being on a new world; Not much to do…
Remember, there is no sin here, no restraint, no punishment.
No limitations….
Go deeper behind your eyes and create your God.
Who is he?
What is he?
Why do you need him?
Look deep into your meditation and realize that there is no rational reason to create a God; knowing what we know about mankind.
We are selfish, we are beautiful, we are the weeping and waiting, the gnashing of teeth, we are free will….
Free will….?
Hmmmm.
Now why on earth would someone decide, of their OWN FREE WILL, to create one, I AM?
Pretend that you have never heard of God.
Breathe….focus.
Why would you create, A God?
Yeah, yeah, skip the “We needed social morè, social control, laws”… Blah blah blah
So, why create a judge, jury, executioner?
Remember, we have no idea about the future of mankind or its courses
My early opinion is, and I will continue this line of pondering since it’s such an intense thought experiment, my early submission is this:
Who was here first, you reckon?
Besides, I know I wouldn’t have created the type of God I believe in.
Why?
Because, I only have a passing interest in what’s good for me and I don’t like being punished.
How about y’all?
Everything Hurts & I'm Dying 
Generally I steer clear of religion on the internet because no good can come of it.
To address your proposition of what it would be like to exist in a new mind state never having heard of a God, well, I like to think because I am rational and logical and systematic in thinking, there would be no need to create a God.
In the absence of a God-like ideology, in these enlightened times (perhaps not 200 years ago however), we as humans, as scientists, can explain things, and that which hasn’t been explained is in the process of being explained tomorrow or hundreds of years away. So instead of thinking about higher powers, if everyone had zero notion of a God, I doubt there would be any need to create one.
But, they did….
Back hundreds of years, yeah clearly. But if a hypothetical situation occured where all minds were blanked all traces of religiosity evaporated, I’m not certain we would create a God.
Although I have heard arguments suggest that people do it out of necessity. I can comprehend that in the archaic world of daily life or death.
It is a very interesting philosophical conundrum, like I said, and I’m sure it’s been pondered by better minds than mine. I’m gonna study it some more because for some reason it struck a note
Haven’t shaped Him fully yet but I do believe in Him or the spirit He represents, this way I have someone to thank and someone to blame 🙂 as to chicken ot egg: well I don’t mind, why would I when both are in the fridge :)))))
“Why would I when both are in the fridge?” That is rather poignant if you think about it… And you know i will. Lol 😁