^^seems you are, like others, more against ideas propagated by organized religion. I am a Theist based on my own experiences, which do not answer the big questions at all, do not give me a security blanket or allow me a carefree life or confidence in an after life. All i know is that i exist, and that i had once existed in a universe on a planet at some time, is such a profound thing that i don't really need anything other than that to live a carefree life. It is so special of a feeling to live life, to perceive and think and be human or any creature, to experience this universe. So that universe, the collective whole of all that is, whether that be infinite many universes, or one, or 9 or whatever, is what i put my faith into being defined as God, that initial matter and energy that created us is a part of that, not even necessarily the whole or not (who knows?) but it's everything in this universe at least.
i think there are plenty of Theists who share this point of view or something similar.
To me, what you are describing is spirituality. Spirituality =/= religion. When I have a great experience doing something I love like going backpacking, I get a similar feeling. I feel like I am one with nature and that there is something old and special about the places I go and that in a way part of it stays with me forever. But analytically, im able to realize that it is just my brains way of experiencing the world around me.
I don't see how you can say God is completely imaginary and yet refer to God as a male, what God are you referring to?? If you are denying that God is a human being shaped figure, the father, son and holy ghost then i think most rational people are going to agree with you, but just because there is no evidence of God does not mean God does not exist, especially when God is vaguely defined anyway. The arguments for and against God are problematic because of such things, as well, if there is a God it is plausible that our understanding of the universe is such that it is impossible to know one way or the other, thereby leading to faith.
I refer to God as a he not because I believe that there is a God that has a gender, but because that is the meme that is prevalent in the society I live in when people refer to God. Its the same when I sometimes talk about "believing" in God, when what I am really talking about is faith.
I think it is wrong to say "you deny that God exists, but you have no way to prove that you're right". The fact is that religious people are the ones claiming that there is a god, and non-believers are responding to their claim. Logically, it is then the burden of the people who claim that something exists to provide evidence to the doubters that what they say is true, and in the case of God there is no evidence whatsoever. For instance If I were to say that unicorns were real, and you were to say "no they arent", and I were to respond "you have no way to prove they aren't real", the argument wouldn't lend any credence to the idea that unicorns are real.
Why do so many humans just have faith in God? and not in a teapot or a rock or something? Some of my first memories were of questioning how God could exist, but why was that idea of God already in my head in the first place? why does the very idea generate so much controversy, hatred, change, power?just because so many people believe/have faith in a God (or not)? it's certainly plausible in my eyes that there is another reason why such a concept fascinates us to no end and seems to have intuitively been integrated into our culture (i'd argue the collective consciousness especially) as our species evolved rationally.
It is natural for humans to want to explain the world around us. The thing that seperates us from other animals is the ability to use our intellect and our bodies to make things. So, naturally it is reasonable for someone to come to the conclusion that all of the vast, complex world around us is the work of a vastly powerful anthropomorphized creator. After these ideas are established they become cultural, and ingrained into the very fabric of an individuals personaity at a young age.
The reason there is so much conflict is because religion is very important to people for the reasons I mentioned in my last post (it explains the tough questions of the world, and comforts an individual about the inevitability of death). Usually conflict comes between cultures who have different kinds of faith, and the mere existence of another kind of faith takes away from the truth of their own faith since (like I said in my earlier post) a community whose individuals share the same faith is what makes it legitimate in the minds of the believers.
Also, conflicts can arise between religious people and atheists/agnostics because, you know, you dont actually have any proof that God exists (which is what you really need, but will never have). The fact that many people believe something is completely irrelevant to a real argument about the validity of something. Take the old beliefs that the earth being flat, or the sun revolving around the earth for example (they seem as if they should be correct, but its really just an efefct of how we, as humans, view the world from our perspective in the universe).
Maybe it's just out of fear, but there are plenty of religions or forms of theism that offer no comfort whatsoever, perhaps offer even far less comfort than Atheism. If you think you're just going to be nothing after living, well that's nothing to fear at all, that'd be fucking great, i'd be far more afraid of pretty much any other possibility than that. If death is like before you were born, you won't even know it anyway, so what's to fear? oh no your loved ones are gone forever? fuck i find great comfort in that idea but i can't be sure it's any more true than the idea that upon death i'll be blasted into DMT hyperspace or some other strange dimension or whatever.
The vast majority of people follow the tenants of religion (at least in part) because their religion promises them a reward in the afterlife. Those that have other motivations (like having a DMT trip) and basing their beliefs on some sort of life experience may not be motivated by the promise of a specific afterlife, but the goal of explaining the unexplainable question of death is still part of the belief.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")