Simple question?

Quote: Nareed

If it were obvious, we'd all have the same religion.

Exactly. That's really the only argument for
god there is, saying it's 'obvious'. Well, it's
not obvious at all. In fact, the more investigation
you do, the less obvious it becomes.

That's what happened to Joseph Campbell.
He was raised a devout Catholic and went
to Catholic schools. In college he started
studying the origin of myths, and eventually
came to realize he'd lost his religion entirely
and was in fact now an atheist. Any intelligent
person comes to that conclusion if he does
the due diligence involved. It's inevitable.

I just had a thought? Maybe because and old mother in law recently passed.

If we are recycled over and over, do you think there is a staging area while we are waiting? I was wondering about this because if there is, then there will be two mother in laws waiting for me on the other side. We didn't get along very well in this life, and they have a head start on me in the next, probably just waiting for me with big clubs, as if there weren't enough knots on my head already.

Quote: Nareed

If it were obvious, we'd all have the same religion and we'd have no need for holy books. There's no controversy about the existence of clouds or whether water is wet.

It is obvious and that is why only a microscopic sliver of humanity through the ages has denied the existence of God. The question of having the same religion and holy books is a different one entirely - that deals with our conception of who this God is.

Quote: FrGamble

It is obvious and that is why only a microscopic sliver of humanity through the ages has denied the existence of God. The question of having the same religion and holy books is a different one entirely - that deals with our conception of who this God is.

Anyone who is not a christian, muslim, jew, or their derivatives deny the existence of god.

The catholic church has made it clear that worshiping another god is not acceptable, and isn't just worshiping an imperfect aspect of the one true god.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou_shalt_have_no_other_gods_before_me

Quote:

The Catholic Church teaches that the first commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed Himself, for example, in the introduction to the Ten Commandments: “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, where you lived as slaves.”[64] Through the prophets, God calls Israel and all nations to turn to him, the one and only God: "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. . . . To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. ‘Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength.' (Isaiah 45:22-24, see also Philippians 2:10-11)

Maybe you can clarify what you mean by 'microscopic sliver of humanity'

Quote: Dalex64

Maybe you can clarify what you mean by 'microscopic sliver of humanity'

Well, let's see:

All the people who lived between the first humans in Africa and around the year 1300 BCE.
All the people who were not Jewish between c.1300 BCE and 40 CE or so.
All the people who were not Christian, Jewish or Muslim from c.40 CE to today.

Say at least 98% of all humans who've ever existed.

I would say at least 99% of humanity who've ever existed have believed in some God or gods or Great Spirit.

Quote: FrGamble

I would say at least 99% of humanity who've ever existed have believed in some God or gods or Great Spirit.

Great spirit is not a god. A god is a very
specific thing, with feelings and desires.
Like your god. Sinning hurts his feelings
and he desires to punish you for doing
it. He gets offended and destroys lots
of people in the OT. He loves you and
gets himself born as a man to save
you. He has a personality, all gods do.

The great spirit is ambiguous. You can't
relate to it on a personal level, all you
can do is live in harmony with it. Or not.
It doesn't matter.

I'm just thinking about how few people throughout history have seriously thought there were no God, gods, spirits, or higher beings. How one relates to that being certainly varies, but the existence of some supreme being has been so obvious throughout all of time that very few human beings every would doubt it.

I also think you are sadly mistaken about the personal connection many have felt and continue to feel with this supreme being or great spirit and how every society and culture has always understood ways, very similar to each other, about how one can live in ways pleasing to this supreme being as well as ways to live in disharmony with God.

Quote: FrGamble

have felt and continue to feel with this supreme being or great spirit .

They aren't the same thing at all, quit
trying to say they are. They are not
interchangeable. One is a benign
energy force, the other is a personal
construct.

Quote: FrGamble

I would say at least 99% of humanity who've ever existed have believed in some God or gods or Great Spirit.

About the same percentage at one time thought the Earth was the center of the universe, the stars could foretell the future, comets were omens, time is always constant, and much more that was plain wrong.

The existence of deities is just one more wrong belief which will wind up in the dustbin of history.