Gods exist: We invented them

[Tonix777]

Gods have been there since the obscure beginnings of humanity, when we finally emerged from the darkness, slowly finishing being monkeys and beginning being men.

Try for a second to imagine yourself in the shoes of these primitive creatures with a brain complex enough for beginning to think, but too simple to understand reality as most of we can do now. What could be then the answers to so many questions that suddenly appeared?: Gods!

Who could save us from the now evident end-of-ourselves and make us live forever? Gods!

And we should probably be grateful to religions because they were the primitive (and probably irreplaceable) substitutes for philosophy in the first stages of man's evolution and according to Matthew Alper's theory they even allowed human species to survive

Gods have by definition all that we lack and men invented Gods because we are not Gods, i.e. we are not omnipotent nor omniscient and most people needed (still need) someone to allegedly take care of which they can't.

So here go my two cents

Background:

Atheists to believers spectrum:

Full believer: Honesty believes in miracles and in the God pictured in the Bible by example (or any other similar religion), he is convinced that people can fly, walk over water and create matter from nothing, or revive long dead bodies, contradicting all the known scientific and/or natural rules.

Half believer: Believe that there are some "divine" entities outside our current human-limited sphere of understanding, but don't believe in magic miracles or in priests from any particular religion. Probably considers the Bible as a metaphoric story

Agnostic: With a more scientific approach he is sure that the "magic" God pictured in the Bible by example (or any other similar religion) doesn't exist outside man's mind

But he is not sure if other Gods (superior "divine" entities) exist or not outside man's mind, because he doesn't care or because he has no scientific proof for either position

Atheist: Is absolutely convinced that no Gods exist at all outside man's mind, either the God pictured in the Bible by example (or any other similar religion) nor any superior "divine" entities of any kind. He only believes in what he can "touch and see" or what current science can proof.

Hypothesis:

There is some kind of "mystic instinct" in all men: Some kind of natural tendency to associate things we don't understand or things we specially value to some "kingdom of magic": Gods, angels, demons, spirits, reincarnation, gnomes, divination, astrology, whatever.

In his book "The God Part of the Brain" previously cited Matthew Alper exposes a scientific theory about the evolutive need of this "mystic instinct" in human species

So it would be probably good to exercise somehow this instinct, since self-repressing totally any instinct could eventually be dangerous for our mental health long term?

With the additional benefit of knowing more first-hand about these "kingdoms of magic" even for refuting them. Knowledge is personal and the most real knowledge can be only acquired by personal experience or proof, as long as we keep always clear in our minds that Gods are a product of man's fantasy.

I see however three basic dangers in "playing with Gods":

1-End up believing in Gods as entities with existence outside man's mind and thus believing they are some kind of external, "real" beings with power on their own.

2-Thus leaving Gods the job that we are supposed to do: The job to change what we can change: adapt our environment to us, develop our own means to survive, use and improve our mind, fight for what we desire.

3-Finally granting to some priests or witch-doctors the supposed ability to communicate with these Gods and then say what should or shouldn't be done, thus granting them power over our lives

Conclusion:

I wouldn't take so lightly the "fantasy" of men, it is after all one of the most powerful driving forces that took humanity up to here. Fantasy reflects the exercise of one wonderful quality of man: imagination. Though as every tool of the mind it can be used for good (projecting things for the future for example) or for evil (denying reality for example).

If some religious people can't distinguish between reality and fantasy is their problem and beside that I usually don't argue with worshipers of any religion, it is pointless because they can't prove the existence of whatever their God happens to be and I can't prove otherwise.

More important: Religious people believe in Gods because they need to, their minds and souls are not strong enough to stand that we exist by chance and someday we will disappear or to follow their own values instead of some commandments written two thousand years in an ancient book

Finally I don't think being an Objectivist necessarily means having a mind so "flat" that is incapable of distinguishing the shades of gray in other's people approaches to life. Reality (including man of course) is complex, so our mind have to be complex enough to properly understand it.

An oversimplified discourse is useful for chatting in a club where all members agree with you, but trying to really understand other people with different mental structures is a different challenge.

Never again I will say to a religious person that his or her God doesn't exist, it is not true because all Gods exist, as literature, mathematical equations or music exist, since for good or worse we invented all of them.

And to be honest I also would like to believe for an instant, even when I know the entire Universe is neutral to the existence of men on this little rock called Earth. Even when I know there is no eternal consciousness out there, only the cold eternal Cosmos that don't care if we live, die, love, do good or evil, or make airplanes, satellites, Bibles, Giocondas or whatever...