i am an atheist. i don't believe that a god exist.
The question is not whether god exists. God did not create man, man created god, that much is trivial. If you think reaching that intellectual level is somehow a dunk on the faithful, you're just a very dim, shallow, petty, and naive person.
The question is why god must exist. When you understand that, then you can understand why man attributed man's creation to god.
God must exist for one simple reason. To make the wrongness of murder universal. That's all. A flat foundation on which to build a counter philosophy to moral relativism. Nothing more. Understanding that, then you can get to whether you believe in god, and your answer to that says nothing about the nature of the universe and existence, and everything about you and your view on moral relativism.
you believe god is a necessary evil... to keep people from doing bad things
No, that's an overreach. God is only necessary to DEFINE absolute good and absolute bad.
All moral absolutism is a fabrication. It does not exist in nature. But being a fabrication does not make something not real.
Without god, the moral relativists are "correct". A cat's sadistic joy of playing with a mouse it has already wounded is right and good because the cat's own existence and satisfaction is all that exists to the cat.
We humans invented god. As surely as we invented tools and weapons. We invented god to serve a purpose, to solve a problem which we have studied for thousands of years. We looked for a source of moral absolutes that could be universalized onto all beings. And what we found is that no source within ourselves would serve. We had to project the problem onto something external and untouchable. Law is insufficient. Tyrants are unreliable. Only god could fit the task.
The question is not whether god exists. God did not create man, man created god, that much is trivial. If you think reaching that intellectual level is somehow a dunk on the faithful, you're just a very dim, shallow, petty, and naive person.
The question is why god must exist. When you understand that, then you can understand why man attributed man's creation to god.
God must exist for one simple reason. To make the wrongness of murder universal. That's all. A flat foundation on which to build a counter philosophy to moral relativism. Nothing more. Understanding that, then you can get to whether you believe in god, and your answer to that says nothing about the nature of the universe and existence, and everything about you and your view on moral relativism.
Very well, if you want to have this argument...
Is murder wrong and if so, why?
No, that's an overreach. God is only necessary to DEFINE absolute good and absolute bad.
All moral absolutism is a fabrication. It does not exist in nature. But being a fabrication does not make something not real.
Without god, the moral relativists are "correct". A cat's sadistic joy of playing with a mouse it has already wounded is right and good because the cat's own existence and satisfaction is all that exists to the cat.
We humans invented god. As surely as we invented tools and weapons. We invented god to serve a purpose, to solve a problem which we have studied for thousands of years. We looked for a source of moral absolutes that could be universalized onto all beings. And what we found is that no source within ourselves would serve. We had to project the problem onto something external and untouchable. Law is insufficient. Tyrants are unreliable. Only god could fit the task.