Before everyone starts thinking about the 'social implications' of the Death of 'god'. One very minor point. What you suggest about the Sun God  and  about the Son of  the Sun hypothesis, Isn't either of questionable veracity? That development not really being considered much. From history the Last Sun God idea according to some is much more complicated than parts of Comparative Religious thought would identify  it  as being,. In our cultural "Sun God" might best be seen differently (or more historically).  Arent we all missing a blending of the common religion and  Emperor Contantain (Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinos) own indispensable religious 'spin', in some part, melding syncretism surely took place. Couldnt start without mentioning this ......

 My bad. Thanks for the clarification. ... I was reminded (just moments ago) of a very close family member that endanger the life of a truck driver. Without the drivers' knowledge, he placed a very super toxic gaseous fumigant in the back by tossing this fumigant before he drove out in their truck.  The levels would have killed either guy 100-percent of the time. There was not enough volume to disperse the fumes so it was fatal to anyone looking in on things. Check the load or stop on the road and the driver is dead. This is real world ethics! I know religious people and however plainly stupid they come across. I cannot imagine they would have done that or placed any human in that jeopardy. Religion, on it's best day, can still hold an intrinsic value of the good will, the dependence of religion on morality, there's that value. That is if you avoid the odd war over it :~

How's it going?

Look - I think we'd both agree that no matter what science came up with theists would deny its veracity in order to feel the universe is handing them a sense of purpose. When neuroscience explains the brain, they'll say the soul is the immaterial force that drives that brain, when science finally creates life they'll say it was a false environment not patterned by chance but by intellect, when we reverse-engineer the genomes of all living things and discover the complete genomic fossil record that must lie therein they'll say its complexity must be the result of divine intelligence. So - my first assertion is that religion will never die because it's not based on the observable truth - frail and subjective as that can sometimes be - but on human need.

Next, I think if god could be shown to not exist in a manner that did convince everyone he was not there - say an alien civilisation arrived and through revelation turned all our anthropomorphic projections upside down - I think things would go on as before. Religion, in my opinion, is a supportive generalisation that makes believers feel a sense of purpose, safety and control. Research suggests the godly live longer lives, perhaps thanks to lower stress or better social networks. In any case, when people lost religion they'd turn to other support networks; to friends, society, family; just as we all do. In a very real way, the existence of highly moral atheists clearly supports the view that without god humans don't melt down, but face up.

Maybe without god, humans would become better people. No doubt the godly would not believe such a thing was possible but self governance for the common good is not a property of faith in the external but of personal integrity. Personally I'd prefer to spend time with stoics than christians or muslims but all govern themselves in the same way. Personally, self honesty feels better to me than self delusion coupled with the inevitable arbitrary moral judgment christians apply to non believers around about them.

Finally Red, and you may have mentioned this when you first arrived here and I may have missed it, but what was your religious background? Or have you always unbelieved?

I put forth that very idea to a theist one time. What would he do if an alien civilization came to Earth and proved that we were merely their creations and put forth all the evidence to refute the notion of a god. He got this smirk on his face and said : Well something had to create the aliens, aliens could not have come from nowhere.

I wonder if the aliens would even have the patience to fool with people like that, seriously.