From Reddit

I love Reddit. It's the Hive-mind of Generation Y and my link to the events and ideas of the day. I often comment on Reddit, typically in a sub-reddit called DebateReligion. I get a lot of ideas for this blog on Reddit and I thought I'd share some of my interactions here.
 

Find below a question posed by /u/tarandfeathers (in bold) and my response. Thanks to tarandfeathers for thinking outside of the box and sorry for linking to my blog. My reply was TL'DR.





It looks to me like the discussions upon the existence of a certain all-powerful creator is not the central point of the problem that leads us towards pondering on religion, and the god topic simply misleads us from the main question.

Correct. The central issue has always been death. Primitive humans, the first animals to possess self-awareness, had to find a way to cope with the inevitability of death. They had to find something that transcends the natural world, something that is eternal and everywhere. God is primitive humanity’s brain-hack for coping with mortality and if you subscribe to meme theory, you see how far that simple idea has evolved. The main question—are we truly mortal or does some part of us outlive this shell—is usually tied to god and most people lack the imagination to pull the two topics apart and examine them separately.

So, please, anyone try to explain to me why do the majority of the debates on religion revolve on the problem of the existence or nonexistence of a god (or God, whatever) instead of focusing on the hardest and most important matter at stakes, i.e. survival of consciousness after the physical death?

God has, until now, stood at the heart of the matter because he (and his progenitors) have always been the source of eternal life/life after death. I say until now because I believe, much as you do, that we should not rule out the existence of the soul simply because we eschew the idea of God. Even if we do not have souls that outlive our bodies and consciousness is generated solely by the brain (an issue of some debate), we should still discuss the future possibility of multiple lives. Some people say we’re not far from being able to upload our minds into computers or robots and the staggering progress of technology lends credibility to such ideas.

What if there is a god but our consciences doesn't survive after death?

That would be exceedingly cruel and proof positive that God is a giant douche.

Or, what if there is no god but our consciences migrate to another plane of existence thereafter? What if the Universe (supposing it is not only what today's physics can accept it is) has evolved, all by itself, by means of its known and yet unknown natural laws, towards an infinite, rational order which allows us to live forever, evolve forever and in that final eternity reach a supreme, godlike, unified etc. state? (I don't want to look like making precise assertions on what could follow or if it will, I just want to point out the general idea).

Speculating is fun but this sub is the wrong place for it. Needless to say there is some support for a cyclical universe so it’s not outside the realm of possibility. There are also some people who believe we will one day evolve to be Gods ourselves by merging with technology and I don’t see why that can’t or shouldn’t happen provided we take some precautions as a species first. In the end though, we’re all free to believe whatever we want. Leaving the door open on the topic of eternal life can really help ease the anxiety of mortality: why should theists be the only ones to benefit from such a hope?

Or, what if God doesn't exist yet? What if we are his & her ancestors, creating it step by step, molding it with each of our thought, action, decision? And what if the morals is in this way absolute, as it contributes to creating a good, favorable god instead of an evil one (who in the end will take over the Universe as his/her own creation and behave as we had shaped him/her to)?

Of all your points this one is the most poignant for me. If we can create an AI that is vastly more powerful than the human mind, connected to all our electronic devices, and without physical form, doesn’t that sound an awful lot like God? Could such an AI offer guidance or make groundbreaking scientific discoveries? Might such an AI provide salvation for a fractured and misguided human race?
 

This "what if" string could go on, pointing that it's more likely that we will manage to meet (a potential) god by trying to understand the world and ourselves than the opposite. Now really, if I were God, I would like you people to focus your attention towards my realms rather than on myself. It's like an author who prefers reading his book rather than stare at his picture, considering he wagers more on his talent than on his handsomeness.

For those of us who have concluded that God doesn’t exist outside the human mind, I think understanding ourselves and the universe is key to our survival and prosperity.

In less words: why is the (non)existence of a god a more important issue than the (non)existence of an infinite Universe (which bears all the possibilities, including the survival of my conscience)?
Because people are anchored down by their fragile egos and attacking the Gods of others is the quickest way to validate our own world-views.