Part 1: Why did Humans create God?

~You wanna know what Christian Values are? Christian Values are a load of shit. What are Christian Values, the Ten Commandments, very sensible rules to live your life by. You know what's a load of shit about them? The Fact that you had to have them written down!

Jim Jeffries

Why God is Not Real
And why he isn't neededby
Christopher Ritzer

Part 1: Why did Humans create God?

Throughout human history, man has been afraid of what he does not understand. From weather, to stars, to natural disasters. The Greeks believed that the sun was pulled across the sky each day by the chariot of the God Apollo. Obviously we know that such an idea is ludicrous, because we have science. It's a theme that shall recur quite often within this paper, so take note. Let's even say it again. We have science. We can find out the answers for how the world works. But as you look at the world, you see people holding on to the beliefs that some higher power controls everything. While many such higher beings exist, we will be focusing mainly on the Christian God, as Christianity is not only a very prominent religion worldwide, but it is a very prominent religion here in the United States.

In terms of Religion, It really only exists for three reasons. To control the large masses of panicky, uneducated, human beings...to relieve the innate fear of death that people have...and to further blow up humans' already overly-inflated egos. Let's look into these reasons, shall we?

Control. It is something that many people take for granted. Here in America, people believe that they have some measure of control over their lives. But do they really? What is control? The dictionary defines it this way
To exercise restraining or directing influence over
to have power over : rule
Anyone who believes in God has given up that control to the Church. Many Catholics worship the Pope as if he were God himself, when he is in fact just a man. How much money does the church, any church, take in monthly, yearly, from it's followers? The Pope himself sits on a throne while children in other countries die of starvation, exposure, and disease. Tells the people in Africa, a continent ravaged by AIDS, that they should not wear condoms for sex. The church can make people do nearly anything, so long as they make you believe God commanded it.

Fear...Plato wrote, 'We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.' And yet, we still admonish children who are afraid of the dark, while the grown men and women fear it just as much. And that fear helped spawn the creation of 'God.' And thus, the concept of Heaven. A place of goodness and light. But what is that? Out beyond the light? Oh my! Demons! And thus the creation of Hell. People have never truly been afraid of the dark itself, merely the idea of darkness. For when we cannot see, our minds begin to grant us images of what may lurk in the darkness.

Ego...Many religions, Christians in particular, will deny this. 'Pride is a sin,' they say. 'We must all be humble before God.' Humble...Yes, because perpetuating the belief that God made us humans specifically in His image, that we were his greatest creation, that he cares so much for us that he sent his only son, Jesus, to die on the cross so that he could forgive OUR sins. Not a single generation has gone by where the current Christians of the time were certain that Jesus would return in their lifetime. Most of them think they would be sought out personally by their Lord and Savior. Such arrogance from so many who claim to be modest and humble, wouldn't you all agree?

Concluding this portion of the reading, I would like to point out that religious belief seems to weaken society rather than strengthen it. Between giving up the control of your life to the church, to constantly living in fear, to the severe over-inflation of the ego of mankind, it's a wonder society hasn't completely collapsed under the strain Religion places on it. Religion has no place in a civilized world. And as long as people cling to their beliefs in the face of facts, the human race shall never move on to the next level of intelligence. Next time, we discuss the Burden of Proof and logical ways to help prove there is no God.