What a waste of time and resources on an abstract idea like "god ", that men invented.
I replied with...
"So, how did you come to the conclusion that mankind somehow 'invented' God?"What historical or archaeological data could you advance for your position? (recognizing that 'religion'--good, bad, and ugly--already was present in earliest recorded history of civilization...there are NO evidences of development at all in the earliest written records of humanity--it is already completely full-blown and well-developed by then...so I cannot imagine how you could identify a point in time in which this 'invention' occurred)?
"Not only can we not identify in historical sources a point of 'invention', we cannot even trace a line of development! The earliest religious practices on record are from ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia. And these ancient religions have very well-developed theologies, rituals, ethical systems, and even institutions. Even the universality of the flood traditions in all ancient cultures (in which a god or gods judged the world with a flood) represents an essentially 'modern' religious outlook.
"You realize that IF God created us with a pre-built notion of an "disembodied consciousness with virtually unlimited abilities", we would be EXPECTED to 'come up with' an idea of "god"--as a means for Him/Her/It/They to initiate personal communication with our species, so any argument that we 'learn' the concept of 'god' from culture or we externalize parental roles/powers to an abstract "Thou" will count in support of BOTH theories...
"Abstraction" alone, by the way, cannot disqualify the concept of 'god', since the same level of abstraction applies to a wide range of related terms that obviously 'exist'--agent, consciousness, minds, justice, love, truth, etc.
"I am curious, therefore, how you would support such a position--with real data.
"I really am interested in your response...
"sincerely,
"glenn miller