This atheist's article of faith is what Karl Marx alluded to when he said that religion is the opiate of the masses.
While it is true that throughout history many people have cynically used religion as a tool to bolster their power over others, the fundamental notion that man invented God is a theory without a single shred of evidence to support it it actually flies in the face of countless evidences which contradict this prideful and hopeless premise.
The fact that those who reject God reject the evidences and witnesses of God does not obliterate those witnesses, rather it shows the lack of rationality of those who reject those witnesses.
Those who say that no one has returned from death to tell us what is on the other side are liars or ignorant of the facts. I am not talking here about ghosts and phantasms. I am speaking of the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was publicly put to death and three days later ate food and conversed with people who had seen him die and laid his body in the grave.
But that is not the only person to pass the portal of death and return. The New Testament (Matthew 27:52, 53) notes that after the resurrection of Jesus:
"And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."
Note the word "many" which is repeated. Many arose from the dead and appeared to many people. So, aside from those who witnessed the resurrection of Jesus many others witnessed the resurrection of many who they knew to have died.
Further, the appearance of Jesus was not limited to just one instance or a few people. He appeared many times after his crucifixion and at one point (1 Corinthians 15:6) appeared to more than 500 people in one meeting.
In The Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 11) the resurrected Jesus appears, shortly after his death and resurrection, to people gathered in the Americas. Upwards of 2,000 people were present.
In more recent times we have several people who have testified that they have had dealings with people who were long dead and appeared as resurrected beings. These include John the Baptist, Peter, James and John the Apostles of Jesus, Moroni, a prophet among God's people in ancient America, Moses, Elias, Elijah, and others. At the apex of these appearances we have the resurrected Jesus having appeared more than once since 1820.
No rational person could not consider the testimony of so many first-hand witnesses and dismiss them based solely on the power of their own prejudices.
Further, those who purport, against the evidence, that the concept of God evolved over time, the records show that God revealed himself to Adam, our first father, and again to Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and others. When they saw God they understood, because He told them, that He is our parent. They could see Him and discern that He and we are of the same species, so we are created in His image.
God put Man on this Earth and did not leave him ignorant of our relationship to Him or His expectations of us. It is Man who has attempted to reinvent God to be something more of their liking. Finally coming to the point of a devolution of thought which purports that we created God in our own image and for wholly our own purposes. Which is to say, there is no god, only Man.
I will concede that good and evil exist independent of God and Satan. By God's command and design every human being (Man) is an agent unto ourselves and able to choose and act. Sometimes we choose to do good, sometimes evil. Sometimes we know what we are doing and other times the good or evil that comes from our choices is unintended.
God and Satan each tempt us. God tempts us to choose to do good. Satan tempts us to choose to do evil. When we do either, it is our choice, not the will of God or Satan forcing us to act one way or another. So, the evil in the world which so many ascribe to the acts of religionists are not the evil acts of God, nor are they the evil acts of Satan. They are the evil acts of people who followed inclinations of their own. Inclinations which we are free to indulge in a world where we live with a significant degree of uncertainty regarding the existence of God and Satan, Heaven, and Hell.
It may seem like the safest course is to try to choose the middle ground between these two extremes. Many who reject God and Satan and religion in general think they are choosing a middle way. They end up choosing themselves. They worship themselves and others like them. They put people as their deities and worship at the temples of human government and human institutions.
Unfortunately, rejecting God is not a middle ground. Putting yourself, or another human, in the place of God is not a middle ground. It is opposing God. It has the net effect of tempting people to reject God. In this rejection, the temptations of Satan are heeded.
Satan doesn't need us to worship him to achieve his ends. He only needs us to reject God.
Notice, I didn't say Satan wins. Satan doesn't win in any scenario. He lost when he opposed God before Adam ever walked this Earth. He and his followers were cast out and lost their opportunities to grow more like God. They lost the opportunity to fulfill their genetic potential as children of God.
Because of that loss Satan and his hosts are bitter. They know that they cannot win. What they want is for you and I to make the same choices they did and cast aside our divine potential.
God will win. Those who follow God will win because of His victory and their faith.
Satan will lose. Those who reject God will lose, whether or not they embrace Satan. Inasmuch as they think they are smarter than God they become like Satan and embrace his destiny.
Follow Tom on Twitter: @ThomasKSheppard
Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM).
The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein.
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Your comments are welcome... Please observe some ground rules. No profanity, vulgarity, or personal attacks. Profanity, vulgarity and personal attacks not only betray a lack of vocabulary and imagination, they also are the hallmarks of bigotry, and bigotry is the hallmark of someone who is fundamentally insecure in their views. Facts are always welcome.
If you believe Government is NOT the answer to all our problems, you will want to read
Godvernment: Government as God
Godvernment: Government as God
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