A study of human psychology and the history of religion shows me that the concept of god was constructed out of our own need for a father figure to look after us, cure all our ills and provide us with purpose.
Psychologically we are not able to find our own purpose in life; we have to believe there is a purpose to life and the universe. The thought that it is all meaningless is too horrible to contemplate. Hence we create gods with magical, undisclosed purposes for us.
There is no purpose. The universe merely exists. We are born and we die and go nowhere. There is no magical heaven or hell. Our consciousness has evolved and has no mystical, spiritual aspect. There is no soul. When we die it dies.
We will grow to accept this and make our own purpose in our lives, revel in the lives we have and live to build better lives for our children, fellow humans, and fellow creatures. That will be sufficient.
History shows us that religions, gods and philosophies come and go. The gods of yesterday are no longer worshipped. If I was to open a church to Baal, Isis, Zeus or Aphrodite now I would be considered a nutcase. Yet they were universally worshipped by millions. Viracocha, the Inca god, was so powerful that you were not allowed to speak his name, human sacrifices were made to him. He is dust.
All the rituals, dress-codes, prayers, sacrifices, incantations, hades, Valhalla’s, Elysium’s and gods and goddess are all quaint post-scripts as will all our equally pointless customs, beliefs and practices become – no matter how fervently we presently believe in them.
Why not read more in my controversial novel which has a major theme of religion and death/