Meditations

[azareus]

I believe that if there is a god (and since there is really no other way for the universe to have started YET, I will assume there is or was some kind of deity involved), different religions are basically just different culture's ways of worshipping that god. Sure, some may have multiple gods, or some may have none at all, but if you look at the scripture, myths, and so on, basically every religion is more or less the same. (This might also just be because they evolved from one another)

If it is proven that there is no god, I will change my stand to believing that some humans need some kind of assurance that "it will all be fine in the end" or some way to express their sorrow etc. through rituals. The rituals are then provided by the religions. Christianity, for example, is just a complicated way of saying "Be nice to each other or it will come back at you". The same goes for Buddhism and Hinduism, but they use karma instead of heaven/hell.

(Please note, I did not read a lot / any of this thread because walls of text)

[The Kakama]

There are other theories about how the universe was created.
Personally,I've decided to be an atheist.As I've mentioned before,I've made numerous attempts to experience God and I failed to find Him every time.Now if I try to believe God exists,I always end up wanting to tear my hair off and break down.

[Vortex]

there is really no other way for the universe to have started YET

Hey, where did you get that from?

different religions are basically just different culture's ways of worshipping that god. Sure, some may have multiple gods, or some may have none at all, but if you look at the scripture, myths, and so on, basically every religion is more or less the same. (This might also just be because they evolved from one another)

If it is proven that there is no god, I will change my stand to believing that some humans need some kind of assurance that "it will all be fine in the end" or some way to express their sorrow etc. through rituals. The rituals are then provided by the religions. Christianity, for example, is just a complicated way of saying "Be nice to each other or it will come back at you". The same goes for Buddhism and Hinduism, but they use karma instead of heaven/hell.

But we could say some of them evolved independently (look at old Mesoamerican cultures for example). And I think I read somewhere (I don't remember where) that one of the theories of the origin of gods is the human brain's tendency to attribute intention to all that happens around them (the basis of emotional empathy). For example if in the prehistoric times you really angered someone, it was likely that that night you'd find your house burning. So if you saw a lightning striking your house, you'd think someone up there with the power of sending lightnings was angered by your actions, and so on. It would then be an universal human feature that would trigger the belief in god(s) in nearly all known cultures.

Of course, it's also possible that there's really a deity or more deities that manifested in different ways to people, but then I would think that all religions would have to have the same number of them, unless that deity liked to play with people

[The Kakama]

Ie.God is in (most of)our heads,or He is a troller.

[Vortex]

You can say it like that XD. But that's one possible theory, there are surely more options.

[azareus]

there is really no other way for the universe to have started YET

Hey, where did you get that from?

Take for example, the big bang as a theory. Nobody has any proven answer to what caused it (or maybe I am just excessively ignorant). I believe this is true for all other theories of how it all started?

[Anteroinen]

there is really no other way for the universe to have started YET

Hey, where did you get that from?

Take for example, the big bang as a theory. Nobody has any proven answer to what caused it (or maybe I am just excessively ignorant). I believe this is true for all other theories of how it all started?

Even if that was the case, why say it was God? This seems absurd to me.

[Isobel The Sorceress]

@azareus:
If god created the universe, who created god?

[Vortex]

there is really no other way for the universe to have started YET

Hey, where did you get that from?

Take for example, the big bang as a theory. Nobody has any proven answer to what caused it (or maybe I am just excessively ignorant). I believe this is true for all other theories of how it all started?

No, there are no proven answers. But that's different from saying there's no other way there are for example the oscillatory bangs/cyclic universe hypothesis, the no boundary hypothesis, the infinite inflation hypothesis, the brane collision/ekpyrotic models and dual theories (in string theory), the big bang lattice models, the loop quantum cosmology, spinfoam cosmology... nearly every theory has its own prediction of what happened XD
Anyways, religious/deistic hypothesis of the origin of the big bang aren't proven either anyways (that I know of). All other no-big-bang theories are practically debunked already because of the CMB radiation.

You can assume a deity created the universe, but there are other ways to explain it. For example, as a personal preference I like the no boundary hypothesis

[The Kakama]

God=being with infinite age.
Infinity doesn't have a beginning.(here we go again...)