New York Times - "A God Problem" Perfect. All-powerful. All-knowing. The idea of the deity most Westerners accept is actually not coherent.

I found these comments at the New York Times which are much more interesting than the article.

There were some fucktard comments, for example this gullible moron:

"Philosophical games are fun. But God is not a philosophical concept; He has revealed Himself to us and, as nearly as we could get the message, He said we should think of Him as omnipotent, omniscient, infinitely good and infinitely merciful. And, to really blow tiny little philosophical minds, He revealed that He loves us and wants to help up to attain holiness. The rest of the message can only be learned by dedicating oneself to Him and living in Him."

The comment I wrote: "I have been reading the comments. I never saw so many normal people (aka atheists) in one place before."

"Religion does nothing besides creating false comfort and tribalism. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism collectively contribute nothing to the betterment of our real world. The path to human development must begin with the wholesale abandonment of religion."

"Since humans first swung out of the trees, history is filled with thousands of gods that humankind has created for itself. Starting with the first one they have all been real until the next new god came along and made the previous gods obsolete, right up to the present day. Gods provide simple answers for difficult questions and are provided with mystical and magical powers to rule over everything. Humans have always wanted to believe this nonsense despite the lack of a shred of evidence to prove what they believe. Just remember all gods and religions have been created by man with no proof of their existence. Humankind has been very foolish for millennia."

"As a girl, I was raised in a very traditional Roman Catholic house with a father who expected my mother to obey him because that is what she said in her marriage vows to him in the 1950's. I figured out as a teenager that the idea of an all-powerful, all-knowing and of course male God was most likely created by men to prop up the patriarchy. That the Catholic priesthood was/is all male only cemented the theory for me that the idea of God was made up by men to keep women subservient to them."

"Many of the defensive comments here from Believers are based on assumptions and dogma that are stated as incontrovertible fact (i.e. God is this..., God is that... The Bible says, etc...). In other words, circular reasoning -- deploying their assumptions to demonstrate that their assumptions are true. Yet they also state that God is unknowable, beyond human comprehension (a convenient special pleading, a get-out-of-argument-free card), therefore logic does not apply. So, how can they know any of these attributes of God if God is unknowable?"

"Tony Pratt - Canberra Australia - "Professor Atterton, thank you for your cogent writing here. Once again, we have a demonstration of how silly all this speculation about the existence of god is - especially its multitudinous accompanying dogmas. All of the history of our evolution demonstrates that once human self consciousness emerged we had to ask where did it come from. Since the earliest assessments was that humans could not have evolved consciousness out of our own spectacular brains the next best explanation everywhere was it must have been god in all his and her myriad forms. Everywhere, in all cultures, local humans invented god. Humans' capacity to imagine anything clearly includes the imagining of god. We haven't yet properly got to the implications the awful realisation that we - all sentient humans everywhere for all time - are god - and that we are responsible for everything that emerges out of our consciousness. What happens to us in our world is our responsibility. It has nothing to do with any invented God anytime anywhere."

"After reading in a National Geographic magazine entitled "The Birth of Religion" that religion was created in southern Turkey to keep social order, I felt a sense of relief knowing that it's man made and is inherently flawed. I just wish I didn't spend so much time in my life reading about the many sides of religion."

"If I am a King, or a Preacher, I definitely want an all powerful God defined. God so defined, when I tell 'God's people' what God wants, that same God who speaks only through me, then, hey, they better hop to it. Or else. And don't forget to be back next Sunday and tithe."

"The last words spoken by the pilot were ‘God is great’ as the plane plowed into the ground. With this, and all the wars, all the scandals and abused children. God is not great."

“Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man?” - Friedrich Nietzsche It turns out that 'God' is a cruel manmade invention used to wield power over innocents, a fairy tale for vulnerable, naive and frightened minds to be duped by its fancy buildings, its organ music, it costumes, its pageantry and the irrational fear of mortal death. There's a cruelness in religion that teaches people to live for the next life while ignoring or shortchanging the current life. Have you ever seen anything more irrational than belief in the supernatural and religious fairy tales? It's all so embarrassing, so childish and cruel. Off with your mindless head, organized religion."

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

There are more than 300 excellent comments at the New York Times. I recommend it. If you don't have a subscription you can still read 10 articles a month for free.