There are an infinite number of “gods” that exist as the mental manifestation of those powers, energies, patterns, forces, forms and ideas that lie outside of the material plain. These “gods” take the form of (G)ods, angels, demons, spirits, (g)ods, fae, ghosts, mythological creatures, Ultimate Realities, Creators, demigods, man-gods, saints and patrons. There are a number of beliefs about these beings and none of them are true. None of them are false. Insofar as they exist outside of the material plain, they are completely and wholly experienced as incorporeal entities associated with ideas, concepts, places, animals, objects, events and activities; these entities are a product of the imagination, but are real nonetheless. Religion is the application of mythological principles and nothing else. “Reality” has nothing to do with it, because the spiritual is not the kind of thing that depends upon material/corporeal existence. The effects of religious experience are very real and extremely important to understand before you attempt to discern what is “true” and what is “false”.
Atheism is the absence of religious belief and activity. It is not more “realistic” because it is not submitting a more “real” belief system. It is merely suggesting that a complete lack of belief works better for them. Agnosticism is the result from an individuals inability to decide what they think about religious belief and activity, typically because they are not sure how to not believe in something that doesn’t exist, but can still be talked about. Everything that can be talked about either exists in material form or exists as an idea. If it exists as an Idea than the idea must have been derived from some experience. Because no one can experience an experience except for the person who experienced it, there is no language that can be used to qualify the “reality” of the experience insofar as it was interpreted by the mind of the individual. Religions, however, create a language capable of talking about religious experiences common to a group and/or groups of people.
People join religions typically for one of two reasons. The first reason is that they were born into a family that “practices” a particular religion and they are taught to view the world their the language sets and perspectives of their particular religious system. The second reason people join religions, is because they have “felt” or “experienced” something that they cannot define outside of spiritual language sets; and so they set forth to find a religion that best “fits” with their experience.
Where religion goes bad is when it claims to be a universal truth, or when they claim that their idea of divinity is superior to everyone else’s idea of divinity. Which leads me to the virtue of paganism, as paganism asserts no “universal truth” and assumes that each person may have their own religious language to describe their experience of divinity. They do not question the “truth” or “validity” of a persons belief. It is only with a particular tradition that individuals feel comfortable quarrelling over particular beliefs, because these beliefs are already predicated upon certain assumptions and principles that have been commonly accepted. Therefore logic applies and can brake down at any point an error in reasoning has occur. In other words, when two people share the same language set and the same initial religious assumptions, certain beliefs can contradict accepted principles.
We should consider criticizing the behavior of others and not their beliefs.
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