Consider this hypothetical. All your life for as long as you can remember, your parents and family have told you that you had an older brother. This brother was born six years before you but died at the age of four from some unnamed incurable illness. Your parents spread his ashes in the ocean so there is no grave site nor headstone. You've never met him, you've never seen his grave, you've never seen a birth certificate nor a death certificate.
Now along comes some distant shirt tail relative who tells you that you never had any older brother. This relative tells you that your family made up the story as a way to get you to behave. 'You'd better be good or you could get sick like your brother did.' You'd better go to bed when we tell you or you could get sick like your brother did.'
Who are you gonna believe?
Lots of people have been fed the god story since birth. Telling them there's no god is a lot like telling the person in our little hypothetical that they never had a brother.
Now along comes some distant shirt tail relative who tells you that you never had any older brother. This relative tells you that your family made up the story as a way to get you to behave. 'You'd better be good or you could get sick like your brother did.' You'd better go to bed when we tell you or you could get sick like your brother did.'
Who are you gonna believe?
Lots of people have been fed the god story since birth. Telling them there's no god is a lot like telling the person in our little hypothetical that they never had a brother.
