Busting the God Illusion

Version in Norwegian

Busting the God Illusion

God is important to some people. But nobody has ever offered any of the three: A definition, a factual presentation, or a proof. Proving can have two implications: Making a formal proof and/or testing if it holds what is promised, or the opposite: Busting a myth. 

Because language is an inaccurate representation of both reality and logic, a formal proof seems a hard mission. But following the facts to see where they lead is not difficult at all. The real proof is in the real world. It is not in any of the words.

The understanding of concepts are not always clear and may have subtones and connotations. Words are only hinting about the reality they refer to. So keep focused on the truth beyond the point words can ever represent reality.

Abstract

You choose to believe God true, instead of displaying true facts on God. That is called faith without proof.

The god you chose was just one of several.

Your certainty that your god is true, it is hardly more than a wish.

The word faith implies personal conviction and unverified information. Making a claim of knowing a truth based on faith is a self contradiction.

Yet faith is an essence in religion.

Formalising a theology, a structure for teaching of others, accepting confessions, testimonies, offerings as well as building formal societies and churches offers faith an inflated value.

As a consequence your faith appears being a self deception, and your God a myth. Possibly, there are several other words available to describe both faith and god. But words along the lane of truth and reality are not appropriately applied here.

Validity and limits:

The following reasoning is valid if there is an objective reality. That is an assumption which I don't need to prove first, because if that is incorrect it logically opens a fasttrack to the conclusion that there is no objective or real God. It also requires that we locate ourselves to this reality we call real world. I don't prove anything for parallel universes.

However, it seems to apply whichever known God you invest your life in.

The premises:

1 You chose one book, one truth, one God over any other option. The chosen truth is dubious of several reasons.

You may have taken the wrong choice, however, because:

2 There are always at least two other options:

a) another book/God is true. b) there is no God is true.

3 Even the no God option, which you also didn't choose may be an error. We don't need any of the alternatives to be true to make a conclusion on god.

The no god option is based on the absence of available god facts. The god option makes up some unavailable god facts. Making up facts is kind of cheating.

Summing up available facts on god:

-No means to perceive god.
-Acts of god cannot be discerned from acts of nature.
-No conclusive evidence to support the existence of god.
-Only verbal descriptions and testimonies available.
-Most reliability checks on the testimonies conclude with a rather low credibility. They cannot be confirmed and they cannot be followed up with contemporary studies and examples.

One of the most important services a god is meant to deliver is blessing in this life, maybe even a little bit of good luck, good health, long life. But none of such are found to be real facts

But, yet, a lot of people believe in such.


Building a conclusion:

I don't need to prove that there is no good reason for your faith. Both the words faith and belief refer to a reality without available facts.

But people in religious cults all over the world worship their God, serve their God, pay offerings to God. Educate their children in their faith. Take political action based on faith. There is a whole business economy based on religion. Some people are willing to commit crimes to follow the laws of their god.

So definitely, without any apparent reason, some people take God as a fact of life.

No real world manifestation, but a strong distortion of the perception of truth. So faith is about fake truth!

But don't let the words distract you from seeing the obvious. The words are just abstract symbols for reality and there are many other words available where they come from.

But there is a reality which is not really changed by the words. Even other words cannot fix the discrepancy between facts and fiction here.

I shall discuss other available words under the header "Consequences" below.

Discussion and conclusion:

Belief in god is unsupported by facts. It is so much taken out of thin air that we can call it illusory. Why people willingly flock behind an illusions can just be guessed.


But we are close at drawing a conclusion on what god is. No reason to believe that God is real, but it could be wrong to call god unreal.

He is kind of made "real" by faith, he is a spiritual state of mind, he is a motivating factor in politics and several political regimes. so god has some indirect effect.


But the true essence of god is an ability to notoriously escape verification. No facts proves god real, but still he is imagined and praised. He has the character of a phantom, something mythical but without substance.

For the moment that seems to be the closest we can get to catch the essence of god. And the true essence appears as hollow emptiness. It is a theory without real hold.

Consequences:

I have used words as phantom and illusion as well as some other words for your deviation from the confirmable reality.

Other fitting words I could have used will all imply a departure from facts and reality. Consequently descriptions with words like honest, omnipotent, great, powerful, loving true or real will definitely be rather unfit to describe the reality this is about.

But omni present is probably not ruled out.

All the appropriate words on faith in god will probably reveal a dishonesty to yourself and the ones you teach your faith.

If you teach god to your children we could say that you misguide them. That is an evil thing to do with children. But again, other words may be just as appropriate. But you cannot pick words which make it appear sensible and honourable because there is a reality the words need to apply on.

So don't take my words for it. Let the facts guide you to the proper words.

Closing

I have used the personal pronoun l and you.
I am a self-proclaimed atheist. You are an imagined opponent representing any other real person who believe in any of the existing gods.

Faith in god is not about just one god. Geography and culture are rather decisive for god preference, and multi cultural societies have very often a god preference which follows subcultures and families. Early learning and a massive influence in favour of one particular god could be a reason for disturbed reality perception. It can have a similar effect as brainwashing.

A free and liberal pursuit of facts and truths may not be an available option for everybody.