To understand the God concept, we must first define it and with the help of Answers.com, I've provided this.
Quote:
god (gŏd) pronunciation
n.
1. God
1. A being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions.
2. The force, effect, or a manifestation or aspect of this being.
2. A being of supernatural powers or attributes, believed in and worshiped by a people, especially a male deity thought to control some part of nature or reality.
3. An image of a supernatural being; an idol.
4. One that is worshiped, idealized, or followed: Money was their god.
5. A very handsome man.
6. A powerful ruler or despot.
n.
1. God
1. A being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions.
2. The force, effect, or a manifestation or aspect of this being.
2. A being of supernatural powers or attributes, believed in and worshiped by a people, especially a male deity thought to control some part of nature or reality.
3. An image of a supernatural being; an idol.
4. One that is worshiped, idealized, or followed: Money was their god.
5. A very handsome man.
6. A powerful ruler or despot.
So, the definition of God has a slightly wide span but we're just focusing on the supernatural aspect of God, the aspect most attribute to their God of worship. As we can see the God of most monotheistic religions is conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe. While the Gods of other more pagan/polytheistic religions could fit into the definition of a being of supernatural powers or attributes, worshiped and usually portrayed as male.
Now, before I go any further let me say that the concept of a God is a flawed concept. By our humanly understanding and concept of perfection, no Gods fit into the category of perfect. I could go into detail but as I'm dealing with other atheists here, I assume you all know of the contradictions and flaws that the Gods, we've all become familiar with, suffer from. But some could say that because they're God's they're beyond our conceivable understanding of perfection, as in, we're not able to replicate perfection so how could we know it? However, as this may be the case, they gave us our concept of them. We have no other understanding to use or base our beliefs off of other than that which was given to us by our all-mighty creators and our creators being the all-knowing beings they are knew this.
Yet, without proper understanding we're crippled in our ability to properly worship these beings that deemed themselves so worthy of our worship, in the first place. So, in actuality, all of these perfect beings are, in turn, slowly killing themselves. As new facts and understandings of our physical world are revealed we begin to detach ourselves from these Gods and their, as it seems to us, flawed logic. For instance, take any of the religions of prior societies such as the Egyptians or Greek. Why is it that presently we no longer see people making ritual sacrifices in the name of these ancient Gods. Well one quick answer would be the death of their society and culture but if their religions were the truth, as they believed it to be, then why did no other societies, that came about further down the line, pick up on these ancient religions? Well, it's arguable that they did when you compare the basics of the two religions mentions and those that came afterwards. It seems more like Judaism is just another cross-pollinated adaptation of these ancient religions. But the question I'm asking is why didn't they pick up on the actual religions themselves.
Well, my understanding leads me to believe that people looked back on these Greek and Egyptian Gods and viewed them as nothing more than fantasy. I mean, by our understanding of perfection, the Gods portrayed by these religions seem even below our standards than those presently. So, worshiping the God that was more plausible, only made sense. Yet, these Greek and Egyptian Gods are Gods none the less. What separates them from the Gods of present day?
So, to sum things up, the conclusion I've reached is that there either isn't a God or there is and if there is then they're either not perfect, all-powerful, or all-knowing, nor have they done anything in their existence that would deem them worthy of our worship, such as abolishing evil, hunger, suffering, etc... And therefore we should live our lives without acknowledging or worshiping their existence. Anyone agree or wish to add their two cents?
