Discussion by: achromat666
I've been pondering this a bit lately…
Every claim for any form of deity somehow predicates itself on a specific group of people who are said to have some special wisdom others lack, or privy to some information only given to a few.
Now, in cultural terms this can be easily explained: different cutlures living in different environments will come up with different ideas based on their own social norms. That special group are usually the ones that create the explanations that people follow through tradition. But there is always the charismatic leader, the people that are close to him/ her and this barrier between the believers and the belief because only a chosen few understand it.
So… if for the sake of argument any of the myriad of deities actually existed, how does it make sense that a god that demands the things typical of most worshipped deities that it's adherents must follow wouldn't simply go directly to the populace? What deity could actually benefits by having the information distorted, rewritten, reinterpreted and otherwise altered to serve the purpose of the clergy dispensing the drivel?
What deity would create followers not bright enough to understand its message to the point that a special group of people need to 'give' it to the flock? That has to be the least logical way for passing on information. Surely any deity worth his salt would be able to reveal himself to everyone and the mystery would be entirely unecessary.
This connection between the necessity for belief and the mysterious actions of any deity just makes less and less sense to me. The only reason faith exists in religious terms is because god in whatever capacity does not reveal himself for whatever reason, so followers accept what is told to them about god as a matter of faith. Why is any of that necessary for any god that is said to care for the affairs of mankind? Why would it work through the abhorrently backward method of fallible human recording methods though specific (and occasionally illiterate) chosen people in remote areas of the world?
The whole enterprise continues to seem to me a complete exercise in futility. But people base their lives on it.
Makes me scratch my head…