@iconoclast,
Quote:I believe God is an idea, and an important one, but do not believe it is valid of reality. The reason i don't believe God is real is because the nature of such a being: creator of the heveans and the earth, contradicts the very nature of the reality we seem to inhabit.The cause and effect relations that bind everything together in a coherent whole are confounded by the existence of such a being - omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.
As you know, notions of God are vast and diverse. Admitting that God is an idea, what is so necessarily misguided about the idea of God?
God idea X is thought of as being literally the creator of heaven and earth. God idea Y is thought of as being figuratively the creator of heaven and earth. X certainly contradicts what science has to say about the development of heaven and earth, but Y does not contradict our scientific understanding.
If we expand this to the nature of God, where X is believed to be literally omniscient, et al, and Y is thought to be figuratively omniscient, et al, again the problem you present disappears. X certainly contradicts much of the apparent nature of reality, while Y does not pose any threat.
I dig your criticism, as the criticism is vicious to many notions of God, but the criticism does not always seem to stick. There are notions of God which elude the problem you present.
Quote:If there were such a thing, we could not know anything. The world could have been created anew ten seconds ago by such a being - along with all our memories of it apparently existing before then.
Well, I have to disagree with the problem here. We do not have to imagine some being who is literally omniscient, et al, for us to worry about the world and all of our memories coming into existence ten seconds ago. Even with God out of the picture, how can we honestly know that such a thing has not taken place?
God or no God, if the world, everything in it, and our memories all materialized ten seconds ago, we would have absolutely no way of knowing.
Quote:But I think i know the origin of the idea - and try to understand how it has effected the course of human evolution. My conclusion is that while initially beneficial, it is enormously detrimaental to continue in the course of this idea in contradiction of a more valid understanding of 'who made man?' and 'who made the world?'
I agree that many religious notions have been terribly destructive. This has always been true. To say that religion was initially beneficial is to ignore the fact that all of the troubles of religion (corruption of religious authority, for example) existed in those earliest of examples.
But again we have the problem of a hasty generalization. Some religious ideas are destructive, therefore all are destructive - the argument does not follow. Some notions of God are not valid, therefore all notions of God are not valid - the argument does not follow. Whatever components we place in this form of argument, the argument is still flawed.
We need a degree of sensitivity for the variety of religious notions, for the variety of God notions. Just like people. There are many terrible people out there, all people are capable of terrible things - but not all people are necessarily terrible.
Quote:This is because our conception of the nature of reality defines our identities and pruposes, rationalizes certain actions and prohibits others, and provides the context for a moral and ethical calculus played out everywhere from the everyday lives of individuals, within families and society - right through to big business and international affairs.
I believe that this context should be a valid as possible, for by adopting a valid understanding of reality we don't fool ourselves about who we are, do not pursue false purposes, or skew our moral and ethical sensibilities with fantastical ideation.
And so I have to sympathize with your efforts. Too often, blind religious devotion causes suffering. And the mistakes involved should be rooted out and resolved. But you have not shown that all of the fish are bad, and it seems that we can conceive of some God notions that do not suffer from the flaws you so justly and honorably criticize.
One more thing, iconoclast. This world is full of many cultures, and they all swim in different waters. Religion is a major aspect of any culture. The best part is that my water isn't any better than your water - no culture can claim to have the best or most valid perception of reality. All cultures offer an equally valid perception. The problems, what you might call the invalid outlooks, are universal - fanaticism is destructive in all cultural contexts.
So, I think you're going about this in the wrong way. Trying to, essentially, invent the perfect cultural perspective is futile, so perhaps if we want to 'belong to a species with a future', we should begin to work on those troubles that cause harm to all cultures, like fanaticism.