belief in which of the countless gods invented? I think the primary cause is cultural, it is drilled into the heads of children unable to examine it critically. By the time they are adults they are hard wired for it. The secondary cause is genetic, it seems we have developed a need for such security.
Have you ever gone to the library and noticed how the occult section is right next to the one on major religions? No discussion of the existence of God can be made without the universal issues of good and evil.
True. But, the difference being how each respective group (occultic and the rest) view that diety. It is something to ponder over anyway.
I understand. But, in man's quest to make sense out of good and evil that exists in the world (which neither you nor I would deny), this is where the question of a diety arises. It is worldwide.
I'm no scientist, mathematician, or religious zealot. There seems to me to be an opposite twin of everything on this plane: day/night black/white hot/cold male/female big/small heavy/light conciousness/unconciousness etc/etc So after an enormous amount of commonsensical thinking, I came up with this: life/death If death meant the end of everything, it would mean we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. But all this is moot. I don't recall anyone actually coming back from the dead in the whole history of the world... 'cept one, but that is dubious at best. I don't know why people are so afraid of dying. Everybody's doing it.
To believe in god you need to believe in something beyond the material world. If a spiritual world exists, and we feel touched by it (e.g. religious faith) then it may be reasonable to think that we have a soul that exists independent of our physical presence. In this case, death of the physical form would not necessarily stop the soul continuing to exist. I do agree though that belief in the afterlife has a larger element of hope and denial (fear of death & meaninglessness), than mere belief in a deity. One could easily postulate a god or gods who are immortal, but with humans mortal and not even having a soul. We would die off and that's it, whereas the immortals survive in spiritual as well as physical form. To claim spiritual immortality for humans seems to be wishful thinking.