(June 16, 2014 at 1:27 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: But are those god claims separate from reality? Surely they must be grounded in something? To come up with an idea, there must be an anchor in reality. Something that the audience can relate to so that they can understand it.
Yes, god claims are grounded in something. God claims originated in ancient times to understand unexplainable events, such as lightning, the seasons, weather in general, etc.
People came to conclusions such as "Only a powerful being could do that" and "The gods have rewarded us with a bountiful harvest", etc. In those times, when science and knowledge were so small compared to now, these explanations were reasonable, since there was no way of knowing why certain things happened. Another motive for god claims is power. Ancient civilizations such as Egypt and Rome had a whole system of gods. Whoever first devised each god probably did it for money and power (gained through temple revenue and positions in the government and church). Old civilizations were ingenious at inventing religion to get money, power and control the people, it was a smart tactic. Would it work today? To a certain extent, but it wouldn't be a smashing success like it used to be (we don't see Scientology sweeping across the globe).
So yes, god claims are rooted in reality. They were used to explain things and give hope when we didn't know anything about the world, and they were used for power and control by ancient governments.