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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
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Author: Texirish   😊 😞
Number: of 980 
Subject: Re: Frank Turner
Date: 02/16/26 6:28 PM
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The double negative means there is a god.

I caught that too.

Still, the song lyrics capture the important message. It's the "religions" taught in the name of god that cause the problems. The attempts to use "god" to control and dominate lives.

The creation of "gods" or even "one god" seems to me to be an evolutionary creation of mankind's wish to control things. And it seems to occur across all groups - however distant. We all know of the major gods created - all the major religions have one or more of them. But go to the most separated groups - the still existing hunter-gather groups of which there are a surprising number. And they will also have "gods". With no interactions with other groups or the bulk of humankind. It's a consistent happening.

To me, as stated earlier, these derive from mankind's needs to control things. And, as consciousness emerged - see Sapiens - they realized that things happened that they couldn't control. But were vital to their existence. Changes of seasons, dieing, diseases, etc. So they created individuals (gods)) that could impact these things beyond their control. And they negotiated with them via worship, sacrifices, praying, rules of living, etc. in exchange for their help. This seems consistent across all religions.

And,individuals who had a special role between them and their gods arose - their advocates. In turn, these advocates - priests et. al. - soon realize the power they controlled and could take advantage of. So came wise men, witch doctors, priests, and religion. Different depending upon who created them. Same in terms of how things worked out.

As as observation, stationary people tended to have stationary gods - holy places, local animals, etc. Mobil people tended more to have movable gods that went along with them. Eventually some decided upon one god - but differed between who they preferred. Meanwhile, much of humankind continued with their choice of multiple gods and their own religions.

From my comments, one can judge that I don't have any objections to people choosing their gods to make their lives easier - or at least a course of comfort in difficult times. I do object to their "god advocates" trying to run their lives for their own purposes and rewards. This happens far too often - not always but predominately.

To sum up - I'm OK if there's a god or not. That can help - if it's real or not. I'm not OK with how humankind has made us of them to dominate and kill each other.

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This community has written 977 posts about Atheist Shrewds. The article-length ones it recommended most:
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