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Survey finds religious faith is fickle, fluid in U.S.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802260377

It is often stated by the theists that people need God to live good and fulfilled lives. I think that we do not, and it’s a good thing too…if we truly relied on a being that didn’t exist, we’d really be in dire straights. But getting to the point…

I think the very fact of the religious fickleness of people in a society is a strong indicator of the fact that people do not need God, or a particular view of God. As I was growing up as a believer in an evangelical Christian family, I came to find it odd how many people went to church, not to discover the truth, but to have their existing view of the truth confirmed.  If they didn’t believe in the pastor’s interpretation they would argue about it, or simply pack up the kids and their leather-bound Bibles and move to more friendly theological grounds. I remember sitting in the back of the car on the way from church on multiple occasions listening to my parents argue about the points of the pastor’s sermon.  As a teenage Christian I found this troubling, and I was torn between how much I should think to determine for myself what to believe and how much I should humbly submit to the teachings of those older and presumably wiser and more studied than I. After all, does not the Bible instruct us not to “lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5) and that our own human reasoning is flawed (see: 1 Corinthians 18-31)?  For the record, I decided to think for myself, and fortunately that path ended up leading me to atheism.

People go with the religion that makes them feel good, or which gives them some sort of “meaning” for their lives. It has nothing at all with any objective truth about the world. It’s all human-made for human needs. This is where this societal experiment in religious freedom really goes a long way towards demonstrating that God is optional and therefore highly likely to be imaginary on this count alone. The God of the Bible most definitely didn’t favor freedom of religion (Just see the first four of the 10 Commandments, and their punishments!) or the idea that all should worship in the style that pleases them, and it appears the only reason those who claim to follow him today do favor this freedom is the triumph of secular Enlightenment values. Just for the record, I don’t think that religion is a bad thing under one condition: If the followers of every religion could only accept that their religion comes from purely human sources. There is no God and no divine revelation.  If everyone could just accept that there is no God that has given them an exclusive corner on the truth, people of all religions could humbly acknowledge that they don’t posses “The Truth” and they could coexist in peace even while enjoying the cultural aspects of religion (if they chose to continue in it—I didn’t). I’m not holding my breath for the religious to make this admission though…but I’ll do my part to help them along.