Have you ever wondered, why God seems to always be on the side of the Theist making a moral judgement? Have you ever wondered, why (some) Theists are getting agressive when you proclaim nonbelief in their deity? Often they first accuse me of rejecting or hating God even though in principle it couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead of having a clear and friendly dialogue about evidence, I find myself very often at the receiving end of threats, insults and accusations.
The explanation of these phenomena is the one thing, that Theists don’t want to be true: Man made God in his image. To be clear I’m not making the argument, that a god or the Christian God doesn’t exist. I am making the argument, that even if the Christian God or Allah or whatever exist, the concepts of these Gods that Theists have in mind are man made.
See, when we read the Bible or the Qu’ran or the book of Mor(m)on nobody reads it with a completely clean slate. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we drag our biases and our character into evaluating this book (or any other book) and we interpret certain verses differently, we might emphasize certain characteristics described in the Bible while ignoring others and we begin to form a concept of God in our head, that is on side based on what the book says and on the other based on who we are ourselves.
There’s a reason why there are different denominations of Christianity. There’s a reason why there are Pastors standing on the Bible preaching a message, that some devout Christians cannot agree with. There’s a reason why Theists subscribe to Divine Command Theory and won’t let go off it no matter how many atrocities in the Bible you can point out.
God is a reflection of themselves. Once again, this is irrespective of whether he exists. He may or may not exist, but various Christians or Muslims see their God in various different lights, because the concept that they have, is shaped by them.Two believers can look at the same verse and argue all day, what it implies and in fact they do.If you point out a challenging verse to them, they have no choice but to try to explain it away. If they were to admit, that God is not good by any meaningful definition of the term, They would likewise in their head have to admit, that they worship a monster. Nobody sees himself as a monster, so they defend the most absurd verses.
Likewise if you don’t believe in their deity, people can become outraged. After all God is so real to them. God has shown himself to them and he works in their lives everyday. He makes them feel good. He knows them intimately well. Then again, there are other believers who are Calvinists, claiming to worship the same God, who is radically different from the concept of most Christians.
If one of the Abrahamic religions is true and if you find yourself in Heaven with him one day, you’ll realize that it’s just like the date with your dreamperson: You imposed characteristics on him/her and in reality he/she is quite different. A God might exist, but if he does, the sound of shattering glass will be in more than one head.
Goodbye from yours truly,
Rene von Boenninghausen @Renevelation
Tarsier Renevelations 