A huge universe exists, in which, in a small solar system, there is a little planet on which many species live, including humans. Humans have and have had thousands of religions. Some of these religions have books. Some of these religions have many Gods, some have one. Some see God like qualities in every natural thing, and some see God like qualities in man. And some humans don't believe in Gods at all.
All people with a religion tend to believe their religion is true- if they didn't believe that, they couldn't believe their religion. Because they believe their religion is true, it usually follows that they believe other humans, believing anything else, are wrong, since they have false beliefs. This causes much strife and anxiety among people.
If, for example, people felt this way about food- with, say the French insisting that only people who ate snails deserved eternal reward, while Americans insisted that only people who ate hamburgers would be saved, and the Israelis insisting that only knishes were holy food, etc- then it would be very obvious, I hope, how silly the whole thing was. Or maybe not. But when you can't see something, and you can't hear something, and you can't touch something- you can argue forever about how it exists, if only you believe in the thing that no one can see, and no one can touch and no one can hear. There is no way to disprove an imaginary friend exists, for example- and if you SAY you don't have to prove the existence of your friend, that belief is the only way to see your imaginary friend, then you can argue about your invisible friend forever.
And apparently it makes lots of people happy to believe in things they can't see, hear or touch. Some people believe in God, some huge percentage believe in aliens, lots of people believe in lucky systems- I hear them discussing these systems as they line up to purchase their lottery cards. There is great deal of evidence for people being able to believe in just about anything- which makes all beliefs rather suspect to someone used to looking at the big picture. It doesn't mean one of the thousands of beliefs might not be right- but which? The odds of any particular belief being right are long. And, of course, none might be right. |
