Who is God the Father? Zeus, Jupiter, Thor, the great “I AM”, or the man in the moon

Sunny said:
So, this has apparently morphed into a discussion of Greek gods and goddesses (I was kidding when I wrote my comment in #256), and poetic rhapsodies about wisdom, etc. Boy, we've come a long way in this thread!

Here's a serious question, on the level: why do so many humans seem to need gods and goddesses? Belief in supernatural beings has been with us down through the ages. Gods, goddesses, ogres, witches, goblins, devils, imps, gnomes,spirits, fairies, you name it. We humans seem to be so frustrated with our own limitations that we keep inventing creatures who can do the things we cannot.

But to an educated mind, ALL of the supernatural creatures we have dreamed up are imaginary.
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Funny you should refer to the imaginary. The Pythagoreans worshipped numbers. They never did discover or dream up the set of imaginary numbers that we refer to as complex numbers but they were always seeking numbers with unusual properties such as triangular, square and cubic numbers, and of course, the primes. People see the divine in all sort of things.
 
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Some have asked for an atheist's opinion of gods. If one does not believe in the supernatural, how does one explain the human belief in gods. As you examine the long list of historical gods, there is one significant trait. They all fulfill a human need. There are countless "gods of ----", war, cure, rain, crops, love, home, death, birth, the list goes on and on .Gods serve a human purpose. They have some magical powers to alter human events. Humans appeal to gods as tools to elicit changes in human lives. Gods have human emotions-lust, anger, love, even jealousy. Also all gods require some form of tribute. Certain prayers, rituals, offerings of all types from food to human sacrifice. Another important trait of gods is that they are extremely concerned with human events, and human interactions. Another trait of gods is that monotheism is extremely rare. While there may be a central divinity, it will be accompanied by numerous other divine figures. These figures generally will serve specific human need. Much like "Saints" in Catholicism and the 33 million gods of Hinduism. An atheist will view gods as human inventions used to fulfill human wants and needs.
 
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