The terrible behavior of the god-believers is a convincing evidence of the non-existence of a morally influential God. Believers loudly legislate each others’ behavior, imposing their made-up gods’ made-up codes on each other (and the rest of us). And believers in gods constantly embarrass the hell out of each other.
It’s a shame there isn’t a real god behind all of the shouting, the offense-taking, the in-the-name-of-killings, whippings, wars, and blasphemy laws, sitting up above it all, shaking his divine head in disgust. The way the world is going, we could really use a god.
But until one shows up, until just one god or just one believer appears who makes a difference distinguishable from any minimal self-help efforts, it would be nice if the believers could quiet down about how powerful and amazing is their god. Sit up and take notice of how truly shitty things are in this world we share. And notice that this god they bludgeon us with has improved life on earth just about exactly as much as human beings have, no more or less. Could they please just notice that they are the ones making the codes, answering the prayers, performing the ‘miracles,’ and paying the bills? They themselves are the gods on which they pretend to depend.
We need a god. We need lots of them. We need everyone who pretends there are real gods to start acting more like them, inasmuch as these gods are supposedly kind, loving, benevolent and acting in the best interest of humanity. Be that kind of god in the world. Discard your pretend gods, and be a force for good without god.
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Comment re-posted with typo corrected…Very, very well stated. And there is another, similar observation we can make, too. You have addressed the behaviors of believers; we can also compare how well they fare in their daily lives. The Bible promises us, unequivocally and unambiguously, that believers will fare far better than non-believers. And for good reason. God says he will work wonders on behalf of the believers so that non-believers will see it, be amazed and become believers. So what is the reality? If we do a study comparing the lives of a thousand of the most devout believers and a thousand of the most adamant non-believers, will we see a difference in the number of lottery wins, “miraculous” healings, flat tires, pneumonia, graduations, promotions, slandering, skin cancer, car accidents, inheritances…? Clearly believers fare no better than non-believers (nor do they have the ability to perform miracles as promised). **Surely the failure of those promises should tell us something.**