I love that even God has a sense of humor. Some of my favorite verses say that God "laughs"...and that brings joy to my heart.
I am old and remain an atheist. Having been brought up in a religious family I know the joy may parents experienced in their faith. Belonging to a church choir up to sixteen there were magic moments at Christmas and Easter. If you have a faith it is a jewel worth retaining, life is short and cruel at times. I became a non believer when considering the logic and the inconsistency of historical evidence but I have no right to persuade other people that my beliefs are correct. The one question I ask myself is, if one day medical science allowed everlasting life, would there be a need for any God?
I truthfully cannot answer for anyone else because simply put, reading hearts is way above my pay grade. That said, if everlasting life was the crux of the whole reason for abiding within a belief system then the whole affair is nothing more than a reward system for being good. For me, if indeed there is some eternal prize that I can achieve then so be it but that’s not my reason for believing God and what He has to say. I guess I could go on with a long dissertation on the matter but the bottom line is that even if there isn’t a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I still love the rainbow. But let’s flip another coin here concerning the word, “need”. When a child grows up and goes on his own, does he really need his or her parents? Why not just say that they are irrelevant and there is no need for them so let’s just euthanize them? Absurd yes, but there is some comparison to be made here.
And however much science extends life, it will never be eternal anyway. Religion determines rules for life and the difference between right and wrong. Without religion, it would be difficult to know what was right, since every society would have different rules.
The whole idea of a supreme being that can create the universe and knows what everyone in that universe says or thinks makes no sense at all. There are many other possible ways to explain our existence with out the need for a god. People need to be open minded enough to be willing to explore other possibilities. Erich Von Daniken's book "Chariots Of The Gods" open a lot of minds to other ways of thinking. I think religious people are afraid to even consider other possibilities because their god will be mad at them and they might lose the eternal life they believe they will receive
What you are suggesting also defines a world where life here was changed or altered by beings from somewhere else, and that were called “gods” by the people from this earth. Most of the translations we have of the books of the Bible have been altered to reflect what the leaders of each faith wanted people to think and believe, as well as some of the things that were written are simply understood differently now. I don’t believe that we all just ended up where we are by accident and without help; but I also do not believe that we have a very good grasp on what really happened early on. I also believe that you are right that religious people are afraid to consider any other possibilities than what they are told at church, and I was that way for most of my life, too. Basically, I am a very open minded person, and I have read other variations of what might have happened during what we call the creation period. An interesting thing to me , is that it seems like almost every culture around the world has some kind of a creation story, and most of them have similar elements, like the story of a great flood. I have been reading a book that I think you would be interested in, @Sheldon Scott . It is called “The Verne Code” (after Jules Verne) and it not only talks about some of the things that Verne wrote about actually coming true, but then goes into the story about the journey to the center of the earth, and asks us, what if that one were also true ? I am only partway through the book (and skipping the mathematical elements ) but it has a lot of interesting ideas, many of which are similar to the theories from the Chariots of the Gods author, and others like him. I found it on Amazon, and am reading the digital version, but it is available in a regular book as well. There is also a facebook page which I am going to check out. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DYTT517/ref=dbs_a_def_awm_bibl_vppi_i1
@Yvonne Smith, I, too, feel I am a very open-minded person on most topics. Sometimes I become immersed in a subject and research it to death and form a definite idea, but I am always open to the opposing viewpoint when expressed well. While I don't follow the Genesis narrative literally, I do believe there had to be a creator involved in the universe. As it was once said, you can't take a box with millions of sets of alphabet letters and throw them into the air and arrive at the Encyclopedia Britannica, no matter how many times you do it. I really can't find any intermediary forms of DNA, a molecule that can reproduce itself. DNA just seems to appear, and has led to theories such as "Panspermia". I read a lot of controversial stuff when I was younger, and my wife locked much of it away to prevent the children from becoming contaminated by some of my wacky literature. People seem to get the concept of Evolution confused with the Big Bang Theory, but they are very different concepts and should be considered separately. Many of the conservative Christians denounce evolution but allow "Adaptation". They are the same thing just renamed to make things "theologically compatible". There has to be a Creator, but the form of that creator is not clear to me.
I am more on the spiritual belief than on a recognized religion. When the ministry came to the new world the Indians ask do my people go to heaven. The minister said yes the Indian said if we take on your religion then some of us will go to hell for me that is no option. Most religion tell their followers that you have to believe a certain way. For example the born again say if you do not believe in Jesus you cannot go to heaven that means all Jewish, Muslim, and all others will not go to heaven. Of course the others religions are the same. To me these rules brought out by regions were just to control the public if they were given by God or an Alien we will probably never know. I have hope that there is something after death if my conciseness lives on or am I just one cell in a larger organization.
That does sound interesting Yvonne. There are several possibilities for the existence of humans that interest me. None of them involve a god The ancient alien theory is one. Another is the belief that the earth was once far more advanced than it is today but civilization was all but wiped out somehow and people had to start over. A theory of mine is that Mars had an advanced civilization and when the planet was losing its atmosphere the people of Mars came to Earth .Maybe the Mars rover will prove me right.
I don't think it's all that difficult to tell the difference. The "rules" are pretty universal, imo, even for atheists.