The true believer never doubts that their belief is alone the best evidence of thing they believe, even though, for the most part, it is really the only evidence they have.
But this is no different than a child's beliefs in tooth fairies, Santa Clause, or even that adults in general have any idea what they are doing or talking about. That the child discovers with age the equal falsity of the latter three does not dissuade them from a belief in God, however, even though their "belief" in said "God" came from those same adults who had lied to the child about practically everything else.
In addition to this inability to accept that we have simply been duped on every level, and by everyone from our parents to our priests to our politicians and school teachers, is our inability to accept that we are likewise only lying to ourselves in our desire to "believe" in one god or another, from economics to politics to religion to power to fame and fortune.
So we imagine a perfect human being, that is so perfect in fact that we conclude he must be a "god," that we call "Jesus," (who Christians insist we are all responsible for killing via our sinful nature, even as they deny being any more responsible for racism today than they are for slavery in the past), and act like the devil in trying to force everyone to live up to our own imagined idea of who we think this person was, and who we always imagine believes all the very same things that we do.
This image, however, is not God, it is an idea of God, that cannot be demonstrated to be any more accurate an image of what that God may actually be like, than that such a "God" can be demonstrated to exist in anyway, shape, or form. Hence the image exist only in our mind, since we cannot demonstrate otherwise. And those who disagree with this, of course, are simply claiming that the best proof that God exists is the fact that such a God cannot be demonstrated to NOT exist.
The question then is whether our mind acts like a spiritual radio, connecting to the faint transmitting will of a "God," or is simply imagining that it is.
The only evidence for the former interpretation then, is a book, which they call the Bible, and all of the other people who have chosen to believe, like themselves, that such a "belief" is infallibly "true." They would deny this, of course, if the "god" being argued over was Zeus or Osiris or even Caesar Augustus. So it is not just that they "believe" they know the will of this God, and apparently better than anyone who disagrees with them about what the "will" requires, but they also know this God on a very personal basis.
And that's why they know such a person as Jesus would never be one to run around calling himself Zeus or Apollo, any more than he would ever insist he was Napoleon Bonaparte or Caesar Augustus. And the fact Jesus claimed to have multiple personalities, claiming he was both father and son, and even a holy ghost, is in no way evidence he suffered from multiple personality disorder.
Nor are the countless acts of horror performed in the service of this belief ever any evidence to the Christian that there "cult" of beliefs is more dangerous than the one started by Jim Jones or Charles Manson. It's only evidence there is something wrong with every other belief instead. In fact, Christians boast of many of those horrors without ever knowing it, whenever they insist "there are no atheists in fox holes," even though the atheist only ever takes this as the highest compliment of all.
It is precisely this kind of thinking, then, that leads people to wear this indictment like a badge of honor, and rather than consider the implications, would rather rush off to kill and die for their own sense of morality, that they are convinced comes solely from a God. And often for fear of hell or having to live in the world we've all created for ourselves.
Nor is there a problem with a person choosing to "believe" in an imaginary friend, or father figure. But the claim that no one can truly believe in anything, including themselves, unless they too believe in this imaginary friend or father figure, is obviously untrue, considering the number of successful atheists in the world (despite atheism being the most despised of all other "beliefs," including the Judaism).
When C.S. Lewis said that "hell is a prison where the door is locked from the inside," he was clearly talking about how a "belief" comes to possess us like a demon, and convinces us that we are not only "like God, knowing right from wrong," but that we should never open that door, leave the cave, or doubt the shadows on the wall.
But this is no different than a child's beliefs in tooth fairies, Santa Clause, or even that adults in general have any idea what they are doing or talking about. That the child discovers with age the equal falsity of the latter three does not dissuade them from a belief in God, however, even though their "belief" in said "God" came from those same adults who had lied to the child about practically everything else.
In addition to this inability to accept that we have simply been duped on every level, and by everyone from our parents to our priests to our politicians and school teachers, is our inability to accept that we are likewise only lying to ourselves in our desire to "believe" in one god or another, from economics to politics to religion to power to fame and fortune.
So we imagine a perfect human being, that is so perfect in fact that we conclude he must be a "god," that we call "Jesus," (who Christians insist we are all responsible for killing via our sinful nature, even as they deny being any more responsible for racism today than they are for slavery in the past), and act like the devil in trying to force everyone to live up to our own imagined idea of who we think this person was, and who we always imagine believes all the very same things that we do.
This image, however, is not God, it is an idea of God, that cannot be demonstrated to be any more accurate an image of what that God may actually be like, than that such a "God" can be demonstrated to exist in anyway, shape, or form. Hence the image exist only in our mind, since we cannot demonstrate otherwise. And those who disagree with this, of course, are simply claiming that the best proof that God exists is the fact that such a God cannot be demonstrated to NOT exist.
The question then is whether our mind acts like a spiritual radio, connecting to the faint transmitting will of a "God," or is simply imagining that it is.
The only evidence for the former interpretation then, is a book, which they call the Bible, and all of the other people who have chosen to believe, like themselves, that such a "belief" is infallibly "true." They would deny this, of course, if the "god" being argued over was Zeus or Osiris or even Caesar Augustus. So it is not just that they "believe" they know the will of this God, and apparently better than anyone who disagrees with them about what the "will" requires, but they also know this God on a very personal basis.
And that's why they know such a person as Jesus would never be one to run around calling himself Zeus or Apollo, any more than he would ever insist he was Napoleon Bonaparte or Caesar Augustus. And the fact Jesus claimed to have multiple personalities, claiming he was both father and son, and even a holy ghost, is in no way evidence he suffered from multiple personality disorder.
Nor are the countless acts of horror performed in the service of this belief ever any evidence to the Christian that there "cult" of beliefs is more dangerous than the one started by Jim Jones or Charles Manson. It's only evidence there is something wrong with every other belief instead. In fact, Christians boast of many of those horrors without ever knowing it, whenever they insist "there are no atheists in fox holes," even though the atheist only ever takes this as the highest compliment of all.
It is precisely this kind of thinking, then, that leads people to wear this indictment like a badge of honor, and rather than consider the implications, would rather rush off to kill and die for their own sense of morality, that they are convinced comes solely from a God. And often for fear of hell or having to live in the world we've all created for ourselves.
Nor is there a problem with a person choosing to "believe" in an imaginary friend, or father figure. But the claim that no one can truly believe in anything, including themselves, unless they too believe in this imaginary friend or father figure, is obviously untrue, considering the number of successful atheists in the world (despite atheism being the most despised of all other "beliefs," including the Judaism).
When C.S. Lewis said that "hell is a prison where the door is locked from the inside," he was clearly talking about how a "belief" comes to possess us like a demon, and convinces us that we are not only "like God, knowing right from wrong," but that we should never open that door, leave the cave, or doubt the shadows on the wall.
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