Man Made

[Samwise21]

Does anyone have a good response to the common atheist accusation that religion was created by mankind either to control the masses or lessen the fear of death

 

[Crusaderbear]

You could say “Bite me gollum!”! Or, better yet, The details may have been worked out by man, but the original thought came from God!

 

[GEddie]

How exactly does the doctrine of Hell help with death?

Or for that matter reincarnation – since you as a being would be lost anyhow.

ICXC NIKA

 

[boomerang]

Does anyone have a good response to the common atheist accusation that religion was created by mankind either to control the masses or lessen the fear of death

Well, atheism also lessens the fear of death. If there is no God, there is no hell. Nothing to fear, no punishment awaits. Atheism also gives permission to do what ever feels good, because there are no consequences for your behavior. So tell them that atheism was created by man out of selfishness and ego.

 

[Tim_D]

Does anyone have a good response to the common atheist accusation that religion was created by mankind either to control the masses or lessen the fear of death

I simply say, “well, it sure didn’t work very well, did it?”

 

[Samwise21]

You could say “Bite me gollum!”!

Smeagol is FREE!

Well, atheism also lessens the fear of death. If there is no God, there is no hell. Nothing to fear, no punishment awaits. Atheism also gives permission to do what ever feels good, because there are no consequences for your behavior. So tell them that atheism was created by man out of selfishness and ego.

I doubt that would work. I’ve met a few who are of the mindset that us Catholics only do good out of a selfish desire for the Pearly Gates. If I tried using selfishness and ego against them in an arguement chances are they’d throw it right back at me.

 

[Samwise21]

It’s not really an “accusation”. After much research into the history, psychology and origins of religions, it’s a conclusion.

It makes a lot of sense.

.

I’m talking about the “God created in the image of man” crowd, the types who believe that God is nothing more than an ancient figment of imagination.

 

[Rosebud77]

I’m talking about the “God created in the image of man” crowd, the types who believe that God is nothing more than an ancient figment of imagination.

A popular Irishism is “Sky Fairy”

 

[Samwise21]

A popular Irishism is “Sky Fairy”

You see a lot of that in the YouTube comment section.

 

[Rosebud77]

Smeagol is FREE!

I doubt that would work. I’ve met a few who are of the mindset that us Catholics only do good out of a selfish desire for the Pearly Gates. If I tried using selfishness and ego against them in an arguement chances are they’d throw it right back at me.

I was accused of that ( and it WAS an accusation) by an American pastor in a supermarket queue. " to curry favour with Jesus" was his wording,

I quoted Matthew re feeding the hungry as we then feed Him and the American deflated after a comment re not expecting a Catholic to quote Scripture.

 

[mikekle]

I used to wonder about this very thing quite often, what always got me was how beneficial so many bible verse interpretations were to the secular authority, and/or how they indirectly benefited…something about that doesnt smell right for some reason.

 

[Samwise21]

I used to wonder about this very thing quite often, what always got me was how beneficial so many bible verse interpretations were to the secular authority, and/or how they indirectly benefited…something about that doesnt smell right for some reason.

I guess it depends on the interpretation.

 

[Tim_D]

It’s not really an “accusation”. After much research into the history, psychology and origins of religions, it’s a conclusion.

It makes a lot of sense.

.

Only to those who lack the skills and intelligence to properly pursue the subject.

 

[Samwise21]

I tried looking on Quora to see if there were any decent arguements against the “Man created God” thing. Best I could find was this:

One creates because he has a plan to put the created object to good use. Thus, creation is an act of supremacy; the creator is always over his creation.

A “God” is a supreme being, one who has power over another. This means to “create a God” is a contradiction of terms. God (i.e., the Christian God) points out the absurdity of trying to do this:

“The carpenter planteth a fir-tree, and the rain doth nourish it…He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied; yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image; he falleth down unto it and worshippeth, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my God.” (Isaiah 44)

To create something of your own power and then submit to it is absurd. Furthermore, since the biblical God is spirit and has no “similitude,” it is not possible for a human, who can only work with matter, to have actually created him.

Did man create a mere concept of God? This is a weightier question. Tell me, is it in Man’s nature to create a God such as this? Nothing could be more offensive to human pride; one who claims to be the only author of morality, to possess the right to kill and make alive, to be the very foundation of reason! If there are clergy who use his laws to manipulate the people, they end up only condemning themselves by violating it through such dishonesty and greed.

God created Man, as Genesis explains and the rest of the Bible confirms. It is a fundamental concept of that book. This is the basis for God’s supremacy over Man.

 

[Bradski]

Y’all might note that the OP refers to ‘religion’ and not Christianity.There have been (and there maybe still) thousands of religions.

I’m going to take a stab in the dark here and say that you would all suggest that every single one of them was man made and wrong, except for your own. So the premise is correct.

There maybe now or may have been one or two religions that don’t offer a happy-ever-after, but let’s face it, who’d want to join one that didn’t promise everlasting life? It’s the one common fact of 99.9% of religions.

No-one wants to die. Everyone wants to stick around for the party. No-one wants to leave early. Hence religion. It’s given a lot of people a lot of comfort in a rather cruel world. Milk and honey, meeting Mom and Dad again, lots of virgins and happy hunting grounds. Sounds like a great deal.

 

[Samwise21]

I phrased the question wrong. I had meant to say “those who say God is man made,” not religion.

 

[Fiasco]

I doubt that would work. I’ve met a few who are of the mindset that us Catholics only do good out of a selfish desire for the Pearly Gates. If I tried using selfishness and ego against them in an arguement chances are they’d throw it right back at me.

Forgetting the ego part, [What’s ego about believing in a superior Being? It’s the opposite.] what’s wrong with having “a selfish desire for the Pearly Gates”?
If we believe in heaven and hell, it’s only sensible to have a desire for heaven. That’s pragmatism.

Ego must surely apply to a lot of atheists, especially the ones who devote so much of their time to viciously attacking the Church, and Christianity in general: more likely anti-theists, as Hitchens acknowledged about himself. A certain British science professor comes to mind, as well.

A quote from Frank Sheed’s book Theology and Sanity, in a section titled “Eternal separation from God”:

But the reality is there: the soul has come to love self exclusively. Even in this life, that state may have its natural consequence of realised hatred of God, for the majesty of God is an intolerable affront to self-love grown so monstrous.

 

[drac16]

One could just as easily say that atheists follow atheism because they want something to help them cope with the fact that God will judge them on Judgment Day. They want something to comfort them, and disbelief in an afterlife accomplishes that.

But I don’t believe that to be the case; it’s a straw-man argument. I’m just flipping the perspectives. If it’s a silly premise to associate with atheism, it’s also a silly premise to associate with Christianity.

 

[Samwise21]

For the record, I’m not saying that at no point in history were religions or gods not created by mankind in their own image. I’m talking about THE God, father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the arguments from guys like Marx, Freud, Feuerbach and Fromm that say that it also applies to Catholicism/Christianity/Judaism.

 

[Estevao]

Even if that assertion were true, it sounds like a textbook genetic fallacy, i.e. arguing from the origin of a belief to its truthfulness.