Chapter 5: The Importance of God

Before I become overly critical, a state of mind I fear is inevitable when writing an entire book with this topic as a foundation, I must take a step back and let you know where the "Religious" part of Religious Atheist first came from. Remember though that this was just the birthplace. The Religious part of my faith was only began here, and has since developed into a much larger idea. But it all started here, with the fundamental belief that God, despite my lack of faith in him, is absolutely essential for humanity.

Gods have been part of human life since we became capable of intelligent thought. They started off as the source of all things the world had to offer; They would raise and lower the sun, they would appear at night as stars in the sky, they would blow in rains to water crops, they would control the supply of animals harvested for food, they cause fertility in people, and would have influence or control over every single other aspect of the events of the world. They were the centre of life for the people of Earth, offering meaning and reason behind all the actions of universe. When the rains did not come and crops faded away, the blame lay only in the hands of the people for not satisfying the needs of their Gods. By having a being that controlled the outcome of everything, it gave the people hope. The belief that if one worked hard enough, gave enough back to the Gods, then they and their civilization would prosper made life worth living. Faith gave early humanity a fighting chance in a world that was completely unforgiving.

As time progressed though, and we discovered that in reality it's the rotation of the Earth that causes the sun to rise and set, that the stars are not Gods but thousands of other suns of various sizes across the galaxy, that rain is produced by evaporating water and high density precipitation, that animals migrate on their own accord for the best chance of survival, and that fertility is based on an very delicate balance of human biology, those jobs the Gods once possessed faded away. And new Gods were born with new roles in life, and new histories of the Earth were born.

The truth of the matter is that Gods have existed in our lives for as long as we can document intelligent human life. They may not have been the same Gods, or even shared the same roles in the lives of those they presumed to influence, but they have always been there, always. And so, through their existence, they have been a foundation of human life.

As for the question I have raised in the previous chapters: With all these Gods, with all these different religious views, how do we know which one is real? In my opinion, the opinion of a Religious Atheist, real isn't the question we should be asking ourselves. The reality of every single religion in the history of the world sits in exactly the same place, because each religion is just as real as the next. But it's not the validity of the word of God that I hold true. It's the power each religion has over the lives of the people who follow it. It's this influence over human life that makes God real. And it's this very concept that stems the Religious part of the Religious Atheist.

And now I believe it's time to expand on this idea, to explain to you further why to me, someone who claims to be an atheist, believes that God is so important. It's true that I don't believe God, the being that created the universe and sits up in the sky watching over us exists. It's true that in my world, every decision I make is because I have free will and nobody or nothing is guiding me to say or do anything but myself. And probably most importantly, it's also true that many of the ideas embedded in organized religions threaten this very idea of complete and total human freedom by which I live my life. So why is it that the Religious Atheist believes that God is so important?

I want you to think about Believers for a minute. You may be one of them, or you may be any form of the Atheists I have detailed in this book. Regardless, you know many Believers, and you know many different types of Believers. So pick any religion you know of, any friend you may have who believes something different to yourself, and ask yourself how what they believe shapes their life. Think about how their day-to-day life differs from your own because of a belief system that they subscribe to. And then ask yourself what it is that makes them do all they do to live their life by such a specific code.

Regardless of what religion you picked, the answer will always be the same. They do it because it makes them happy. They have faith in something bigger than themselves. If they subscribe to Fate, for example, they are happy in knowing that everything that happens to them happens for a reason. God has a grand plan, and every single aspect of their life is working towards something amazing. If they subscribe to certain eating habits, be it no meat on Fridays, no eating cow or pork, or no consuming raw foods, they do so because they believe that it will make their lives better. Though they may do it for themselves, they do it more importantly for God, to try and make him happy. And in doing so, they make themselves happy.

Religion also offers an extremely strong sense of community. Human's have always banded together. It's how we survive. Even now in the twenty-first century we are acting exactly as we did at the dawn of human life. We are working together to prosper. We install the ideas of patriotism into our youth, supporting our country and working together for mutual gain. We make friends because we like the company of others, and enjoy sharing our lives with those around us. And through religion, people are given one of the strongest bonds of all. Together people believe in one thing, with no if and or buts, they follow the same scripture and code. They are part of an almost completely unchanging society that motivates them to do better and brings them closer to one another. And if that weren't enough, most of those religions offer the promise of not only spending this life with your community, but spending eternity with them, never once leaving the Believer alone.

It's this grand idea of happiness and self advancement in the eyes of something bigger than yourself that makes God such an essential part of human life. And though I may not subscribe to the practices of any organized religion, I do so because like Believers, my decisions makes me happy. So who am I, or anyone else, to tell you that what you believe isn't right when the indisputable truth is that your beliefs make you happy.

God may not be sitting in the sky, and he may not have created the universe. But no matter what we all believe, it's indisputable that he exists in the hearts and minds of billions of people everywhere. And you, like every other person in the world, are entitled at birth to believe whatever will make you happy. And if that doesn't make him in some sense real, then what does?