God isn't real, you maniacs. Believing in something imaginary is generally a clear indication of delusion. There are several simple, reasonable, and rational ways to demonstrate delusional thinking in relation to God and faith. If we cannot explain why we believe what we believe, how can we be sure our faith is well-founded? It requires faith to believe you have a reason to believe in God.
Care to continue with the controversial discussion? You might be surprised how it ends.
Everyone seems to have a different interpretation of God or which attributes qualify as godly. Some see God as a being, judging and dispensing eternal justice, while others see God as a force or spirit pervading everything; yet others accept God but can't offer any interpretation. Honest answers may include: "I don't really know," or, "God is too big for us to understand."--though both admit belief in something incomprehensible.
Let's take a closer look at some general problems with God and faith.
Delusion #1. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all... God is all.
To exist and possess all of something is impossible for humans to understand, because it is an experience beyond possibility for any one of us. We don't live long enough to know everything on Earth, let alone in the universe; we certainly aren't all-powerful in mind or body; and being present in more than one place at a time, never-mind everywhere, is fantastical to a single person.
We cannot and will not understand a being that possesses capabilities of this nature. Bound in space, time, and form guarantees we will never be capable of understanding a God of this type.
If we look closer at what people really think and how they talk about God, there's a lot of anthropomorphism going on--making God more like us with thoughts, desires, emotions, and so forth (like a Disney movie full of talking animals and objects).
Pretending to believe in a God-being with power far, far beyond anything you can comprehend in a thousand lifetimes is irrational and delusional. Now, if such a being descended to Earth and demanded obedience, even if God were an alien, it might be prudent to worship such a creature to avoid disintegration.
This omni-God present problems for free will and choice: if God exists in all places at all times, then such places and times must "exist" already--otherwise, how can God be said to exist in all places and times? That means the future is done; everything is done; there is no time simply because God knows all things! How can we choose what we are going to do when everything is already done?
Either God is not all-powerful or we are delusional. Neither proposition is conclusive because both are beyond the reach of rational thought and require a lot of faith.
Delusion #2. Mankind is a fallen race of sinners in need of redemption.
Not all religious belief shares this tenet, but most of have some kind of "lost sheep" attribute inherent in mankind, an innate need to find God and reconnect with the soul. One may argue this built-in yearning is a direct result of our fallen nature, or we are incomplete and need God, as a long-lost friend or father figure.
Evidence for our lost nature includes frequent wars, thousands of different religious groups, new age ideas, societal disruption, and every friction dividing and driving tensions. We can't seem to get along, but is this evidence of our lost nature? Maybe but consider this: humans lived in tribal societies for a long, long time and such a mentality persists in the modern day nations, flags, religion, and other ideologies.
Once upon a time, an event occurred causing separation between God and man. In Christian theology, it was direct disobedience, but in aboriginal and Eastern thought, stories take on more creative aspects. Some say we're asleep and this is only a dream, but we've forgotten and we believe it's real. Native lore paints the picture of interconnections among all living things and any separation is only what we create.
If we are fallen, how can we comprehend the way back to the light? Being in a fallen state includes our judgment, feelings, intellect, and even what we choose to believe. To admit we are deeply flawed and cannot see the truth without help also admits our belief we're flawed and blind is also flawed! This does not mean we are perfect, only we cannot rationally measure if the instrument we use to measure (our mind) is broken, giving us a faulty reading.
Being fallen and flawed means our reasoning and belief is flawed. There are many different ideas about the nature of mankind. It seems more reasonable to say we have no idea what or if there is anything fundamentally wrong with humanity, but we can believe otherwise.
Delusion #3. God works miracles in people's lives
A scum-bag turns to God, cleans up his act, and proceeds to help inner city youths do the same. Is this a miracle? Has God indeed touched this man's life and used him to accomplish great deeds? If the reformed scum-bag slipped up and was found in a gutter, a needle in his arm, the story wouldn't be so miraculous, would it? Yet there are many examples of "miracle" cases going sour.
The faithful widow overcoming cancer twice with a church praying for her? If it is a miracle, why are there children suffering and dying in cancer wards all over the country? Is an older widow more precious to God than a child? There is no way for a finite mind to know for certain why God would allow such things to occur; often we say it is "God's Will" or they are "in a better place". Maybe it is so, but we believe these ideas and have no way to experience it for ourselves.
Without the whole-hearted belief, without faith, would any miracles happen? No one praying, no one living righteously, no one believing miracles exist--such a world seems incomprehensible only because we understand the idea of miracles. Many of us have seen some inexplicable things in our life.
If you were to believe, fervently and completely, in something, anything, and it came to pass exactly as you wished it, to whom would you attribute that miracle? How do we separate the power of belief from the thing we believe in?
Maybe miracles come from our belief and not from God. Do miracles exist without belief in God? Short of gaining experience showing God creating miracles, we can't know whether such amazing acts are a result of internal or external sources.
Faith is delusional.
To believe in a God beyond understanding is delusional. This act admits placing full, eternal trust in an entity beyond reason, rationality, time, space, and all mortal comprehension. A swath of infinite possibility exists in which God may not be what you believe; there is a far higher chance you are mistaken about God, as your personal belief represents a pathetically small portion of all the exists.
Faith is practical.
Regardless of why delusional faith exists, there is a verifiable effect on those who believe. Faith has demonstrated tangible benefits in physical and mental healing, psychological recovery, and general happiness with life. Whether the object of faith is "real", or the person is delusional or not, is secondary to the experiential effects of faith in individual lives.
God isn't real.
How many versions of God exist in the world? Of those versions, how many believers claim their version is the correct one? If someone searched for truth about God, they would find confusion or maybe pick the one that seemed right to them. God exists in our mind, it is an idea we form about we believe--to us, it is real and belief keeps it alive in our mind. It is physically, mentally, and spiritually impossible to know if God exists and if God is anything like the picture we hold in our mind.
CONCLUSIONS!
Conclusion #1. God exists as an idea in our mind. Independent existence cannot be known.
Conclusion #2. Belief gives our ideal God life. We have faith in our idea of God = delusional.
Conclusion #3. If we're fallen sinners, we have sinned against our beliefs--against ourselves.
It doesn't really matter if God exists or not, or if faith is really delusional self-assurance, because the effects are tangible. Within a believer's mind, faith creates a reality in which God, as they understand God, exists and has certain properties and attributes.
God doesn't exist, except to you, and faith is delusional, but it's necessary.
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