Answer 115

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Question 115

If gods do not exist, why do you think humankind invented them?

Not my own personal answer, but one I saw somewhere and forgot the source. Not sure if I believe it, but it is a thought provoking answer anyway...

"Because a bunch of recently evolved chimpanzees can't imagine all this stuff without an alpha male in charge."

(Chris Ho-Stuart #150)

You have to have someone to yell at when you hit your finger with a rock (or hammer), or stub your toe on a saber-tooth tiger (or other quadraped) carcass. If Glab hurt, must be God want Glab to hurt. (Jeff/addesign #1063)

Some gods do exist. Pick up a dictionary and look up lower case god you'll find idols and emperors, rock stars and male beings with supernatural powers. Are idols gods or representations of gods? It depends on the idol and the believer.

I think the earliest gods were divine emperors, I base this on observations of unofficial emperor worship and the behavior of flocking parrots. To the other parrots the alpha male is a god and acts it. I think the notion of gods spread out from there. (Charles Fiterman #376)

I go along with a theory that is two-fold. First, they were invented to "explain" the unexplainable. They stayed around because a bunch of unscrupulous bastards figured out that humans want to have father-figures around to look up to, and decided to make the gods into beings to be worshipped and feared and (in the process) pretend to be those gods' best friends. These became priests - the rest is horror! (Nemo #1331)

Originally: to explain unknown phenomena like lightning, earthquakes, etc. As things developed, they were used to answer questions on other topics like "what happens to us after we die", "where did we come from", etc.

It's fairly depressing that a majority of humans haven't gotten past that stage yet, but memetics offers coherent reasons as to why it's so. (raven1 #1096)

Because humankind is, and always has been, afraid. Afraid to live, afraid to die, afraid to take responsibility. It is a lot easier for some to cope if they can blame another entity for the things that happen.

I also think it's because it gives some comfort to think that their loved ones are still alive, in a sort, somewhere. They feel that if someone's conciousness and personality are out there floating around somewhere, they'll be with them again someday.

Gods also give people a way of not taking the blame for the bad things they do, and a way of easing their concience after they do them.

So I guess gods were invented to help humantiy escape. (Maddeline Hattuer)

I can't be certain, but I believe that the very first concepts of any kind of God, were formed to explain natural events such as earthquakes, volcanoes, sudden storms, etc. It was only after the concept was formed, that the concept began to be used as a tool to control. (HEY-JOE)

It's a lot easier to understand that it's a gawd that's throwing lightning bolts than it being a huge static discharge. So a gawd is created and since they can do these wonderful things (like throw lightning and don't dismiss the fact that this gawd must be living in the sky) then he must be a powerful gawd and worthy of thier worship. (Blackguard #869)

I don't think it's coincidence that when people knew much less about the world, they imagined more gods--one to make the crops grow, one to make the sun rise, and so on. Now that we know why these things happen, we only "need" one god to explain what's left, which basically is "how did the universe begin". As we get closer to an answer to that, theists get more uneasy (Brett A. Pasternack)

Religion fosters coherence within primitive societies. Religious "truths" provide a powerfully authoritative pretext for human morality. This tends to shore up individualism which might otherwise threaten the unity of the tribe. Tribal leaders identify the legitimacy of their authority with that of their gods. Disputes within tribes are more easily resolved when brought to the bar of celestial authority (This is true so long as all the members of a given group share a common theology; the benefits I enumerate must be weighed against such shortcomings as the English Civil War). When tribe moves against tribe religion is often an invaluable means of sanctifying the whole enterprise. How many wars have been fought and are still being fought today beneath the banner of divine providence, a la, Joshua at Jericho? It seems likely to me that certain groups of early humans---in their struggle to survive hostile physical environments, animal predators and the murderous intentions of human rivals---came to believe common stories, however rudimentary, about themselves, the world and their place in it. Most of these stories included a religious scheme involving a god or gods. Because these stories enhanced, for those tribes that believed them, the likelihood of survival, myths became an integral part of the structure of all human societies. (Philip Hart)

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