LogFAQs > #979351889

Ratchetrockon posted...

oh I also thought the belief in thousands of gods was too outlandish and after some thinking I realized this could also apply to the belief of a single God as well. i grew up listening to pastors talking about the ONE TRUE GOD. I'm sure previous civilizations thought the same for their dozens/hundreds/thousands lol.

And once I learned more about other polytheistic cultures I got the hunch that this God stuff must be made up.

What I've realized about God(s) is they are shorthand explanations for things that people, historically, had no explanation for. Why did a massive flood come from the sky and wipe out your crop? The Rain/Weather/The God did it because you didn't worship hard enough. Why did your country's army suffer a debilitating loss? Because the God of War blessed your opponent or your nation was not fervent enough in its worship of the God of War.

Now why did they have no answer? Chiefly because the vast majority of people received no sort of formal education or methods to improve their logic/deductive skills. Add in shared beliefs create identity and culture, and people prioritize their (small) community over all else and it is easy to see why God(s) are common beliefs in basically every human society to ever exist. Then sprinkle in those who use religion to wield power, and it becomes obvious why said God(s) haven't disappeared.