How would an omniscient God work?

[Forsaken]

There has to be something in the mind itself that drives certain people to believe in something.

If you are taught shit from birth, you ought to become a shitty person. Only a few manage to realize the shit they are in and crawl out of the shit hole to a free world without shit, aka, the atheist world.

[SleepingDemon]

It doesn't matter how you dissect it. Omnipotent this, omniscient that, believers will still hang on due to their deep seeded need to believe. The Epicurus quote sums it up nicely, but it still echoes inside empty skulls because we only see what we want to see.

One of my closest friends is a pentecostal preacher, and though he and I have had a thousand conversations, despite the fact that I have beaten his regurgitated rhetoric to a pulp on every single encounter, he refuses to take the step because he can't imagine everything happening by chance.

It's this idea of self importance, this quest for purpose. I would say it isn't much of a leap to deduce that most theists know that their little rituals are bullshit. The overwhelming majority of believers are passive at best, that is the reason for the "relationship not religion" epiphany several years back. The ideology is fallible, and they fucking know it. So you call it spirituality instead, a friendship. It's why the asshole on youtube with the "I love jesus but hate religion" video has so many hits. Unfortunately the majority of our species needs this mumbo jumbo to cope. It it all disappeared tomorrow, within a week the Bastards would be worshipping some other divine creator.

It's depressing, I know, I look around me at my fellow man and get this overwhelming nausea when I think about it. Sometimes I think I was born a thousand years too early. My species still hasn't left the caves.

[Blam!]

All of the above. Plus, most of all, social control, a.k.a. fear of peer punishment and ostracism.

That is, perhaps, the most crucial, central drive of evangelicalism and religious belief. I don't get scared easily by threats from nonexistent things like god, hell and divine punishment. However... Angry, bloodthirsty, ignorant mobs are not "nonexistent" threat to my life. I, once, feared my religious parents will disowned me if I declared my atheism, but I got fed up and hell with it..

If there is a legitimate to prevent fear of peer punishment and ostracism, then religion will collapse. Or I'm being optimistic.

[Forsaken]

My species still hasn't left the caves.

Exactly...

[Soyouz]

There has to be something in the mind itself that drives certain people to believe in something.

If you are taught shit from birth, you ought to become a shitty person. Only a few manage to realize the shit they are in and crawl out of the shit hole to a free world without shit, aka, the atheist world.

Whilst that is true in most cases, it isn't always.

It seems to me that there should be a certain area within the brain which has evolved over time to provide thoughts about fictional things. The first time a thought of belief formed must've been when a type religion started to grow.

Love that post Sleepingdemon, that's exactly how I feel.

[SleepingDemon]

Thanks guys. I know it's fun to pick on fundies, I enjoy it from time to time. But the worst fights for secularism are ahead of us. And it isn't with the fundies. They'll become the flat earthers eventually. What concerns me are the relationship Christians who separate themselves from the theology, but still hold onto the ideology. They have discovered a method for keeping mythology relevant in the modern age. They're persistent Bastards.

[Blam!]

It's this idea of self importance, this quest for purpose.

That's another factor that drives the nonsensical beliefs like religion. So it sums up 3 most crucial factors of religious drive:
1. Fear of peer punishment.
2. Ostracism.
3. Idea of self importance.

If these factors are dealt with and deemed to be useless, will the religion collapsed? If not, what's crucial factor we're missing? False rewards of an afterlife, such as immortality?

[Soyouz]

It's this idea of self importance, this quest for purpose.

That's another factor that drives the nonsensical beliefs like religion. So it sums up 3 most crucial factors of religious drive:
1. Fear of peer punishment.
2. Ostracism.
3. Idea of self importance.

If these factors are dealt with and deemed to be useless, will the religion collapsed? If not, what's crucial factor we're missing? False rewards of an afterlife, such as immortality?

Is it at all possible that religion has an evolutionary purpose?

[Blam!]

I'm just trying to build the list of central factors of religious drive, so I can preparing myself in case if I am making an argument with similar subject in future.

---

Creationism and Intelligence Design, Soyouz? Perhaps, but that's not really source of religious drive. Creationism and Intelligence Design is the perspective based on the bible, so if we debunked the bible, then why does the theists persisted to believe?

I've seen too many atheists debunked the Creationism, Intelligence Design and bible, but xtains continued to believe their god. So what's the factor we're missing here? Self-deception A.K.A. religious faith?

---

I think I'll save this subject of "factor of religion" for my thread in future. Besides, I don't want to hijacked this thread any further.

[Rokcet Scientist]

I've seen too many atheists debunked the Creationism, Intelligence Design and bible, but xtains continued to believe their god. So what's the factor we're missing here? Self-deception A.K.A. religious faith?

FEAR!
Fear is the primal motivator of religion:
• Fear of peer punishment
• Fear of ostracism
• Fear to be 'different'
• Fear of the unknown

And con-men pick that ball up and run with it!

Some even get to regularly flaunt their gold embroidered dresses, funny hats, and phallic symbols in public! How perverted can you get?