This was copied from http://www.amazon.com/tag/religion/forum/ref=cm_cd_ttp_emf_rft_tft_tp?_e...
The link may not work forever. It is a fascinating discussion about God. The two camps are:
1 - Jesus is totally real, duh!
2 - Do you even know what a plethora is?
Guess which camp I'm in! I've heard it said best like this (paraphrased, and mind the sarcasm):
"Oh, so Superman, we totally made that up. And the X-Men, that also didn't really happen. Godzilla, also a myth. But Jesus? He's real!"
_______
The one common thread I've found in ALL of my seeking is this: humanity has an inborn desire to be connected to Divine source or nature, somehow- something other, or larger than one-self, or the individual awareness, such as the Collective Unconscious of Carl Jung's description, the Cosmic Consciousness of the New Agers, or whatever you prefer to call it.
Without belief or faith in SOMETHING, existence is simply not possible. This is why I find it more credible to believe that there is an intelligent order of design in the universe, which is fractal in nature (apply the science of mathematics here!) and recursive, as well as spiral and cyclic. Our own minds support this theory because we systemize data according to some kind of intelligent order. Our brains have to interpret our perceptions somehow, even though individual interpretation can and very often is often completely fallible. That, to me, does not suggest 'accidental' development if the universe is in fact fractal in nature.
Most religion, to me, is simply crap because it is only man-made interpretation of what man's 'animal-mind' perceives about divinity or other forces that it cannot otherwise explain. Try explaining plasma energy to an amoeba, if you could somehow communicate with the amoeba. See if the amoeba does not 'deify' you if it could be proven the amoeba has the qualities of the human psyche.
My latest conclusion is this- everything is INTERCONNECTED, and this is an UNAVOIDABLE fact- we all exist on the SAME 'playing field' since all matter is energy at its most basic elemental makeup, and energy has been proven scientifically to be indestructable. Atomic cohesions can be broken into smaller elements, but they can be broken down no further than their most basic makeup, which of course, is ENERGY in a myriad of different configurations.
If the Universe is therefore made up of LIGHT (energy), then the LIGHT must be intelligent and aware, and an active principle in the continuing evolution of universal existence. Whether we 'anthropomorphize' this force or not in our attempt to 'create God in our own image' is largely not a consideration, since the human species is likely only a fractional division of the life extant within the vastness of the universe. It would be arrogant of us to assume otherwise in light of what science has observed thus far.
But we ARE here for a reason, and I don't believe it was through an 'accidental' occurrence that's been labeled as the 'big bang'. I personally believe that we are meant to evolve to a much higher level of consciousness (existence, awareness, reality) than where we are now. Maybe that makes me sound like a New Ager, but so be it.
Then again, we may all be like rats trapped in a huge maze, some "meta-experiment" gone wrong and then abandoned by the 'experimenter', but even at that, there must still be a way OUT of the maze- some doorway or exit that very few but the smartest or most aware find.
If nothing else, then one must AT THE VERY LEAST have a belief or faith in ONE-SELF, or we might as well 'shut the whole thing down'! Get out the nukes and 'have at it' once and for all!
These conclusions are NOT based on any mythology, other than the value that said mythologies have at presenting the most common elements with other systematized schemata from world history.
