Is God so insecure and petulant He needs to create his own friends to provide ongoing reassurance of His own importance?

The mythology is as false and contrived as the historically non-existent "escape from Egypt".

It's odd that minds that cannot fully comprehend the concept of eternity or imagine anything beyond three dimensions can claim they don't only know what God is but what He wants and even what He looks like, based on nothing more than Iron-age observations and assumptions about the universe itself.

No one knows for sure whether or not there is a God; they can hardly make personality judgements.

"The gods had no real stake in being identified one from the other and were arranged by believers in order to suit various religious needs."

Excellent, assuming this was in fact the case (which we may historically doubt), then it was religion at its best!

Firstly, gods should not be identified as separate: they all just represent different aspects of the one and only God.

Secondly, isn't it wonderful if indeed the people at the time arranged their gods to suit their various RELIGIOUS needs unlike the "bright and shiny gods of modernity" which the author mentions, that are arranged to suit material needs?!

Now at one stage or another in life, many of us do require harsh discipline and loyalty to our path. At times it becomes a religious need for us to follow our spiritual practices through obstacles and crisis, so the depiction of God as the jealous YHWH (Lit. "will-be/is/was"), who keeps us on the straight and narrow, is useful and has its rightful and respectful place among the other gods.

Different people, in different circumstances, with different temperaments and at different stages in life, have different spiritual needs. While we all head towards God, we must each start our journey from where we are rather than from where some other person has been thousands of years ago.

People who follow the Judeo-Christian path should realise that while that path suits them, other paths suit others. Anyone who respects God should respect all the different paths that lead to Him.

Simple questions.

1) Which one of the hundreds of religions is representing the real god?

2) If all religions have the real god and he or she is compassionate and caring why is there so many problems and absolutely evil people in the world?

3) If someone comes up with a new scam or con, whether it is to control people or rob people guaranteed others will follow and try it.

From one con originating possible thousands of years ago we have the current situation.

Dear Philip,

I assume these questions were addressed to me. My time is short today, so I will answer you in very brief:

1. The purpose of religions is not to represent God, but rather to help people come closer to Him. If representation (as in saying "Thus spake the Lord, ...") happens to do part of the job, then well and good.

2. It is nonsensical to speak of God as compassionate and caring. We do so anyway, and so we should, because it helps us draw nearer to Him. To understand the problem of evil, you may want to look at one of my recent posts: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=18201#324192

3. Scammers can rob people of their money but no scam can possibly rob anyone of God. A scam will still be a scam, but one who has God in their heart will never go astray.

The questions were just directed to anyone, they are what I sometimes say when people talk about religion.

One wonders which century Sells "lives" in when he promotes such obvious nonsense. Perhaps the 19th or even the 18th?
This reference provides numerous resources which unpack the naive archaic mythologies of the "God"-ideas promoted by Sells and other back-to-the-past religionists.
http://www.realgod.org

But what about (non-dual)Reality with a Capital R?

This reference introduces a book which discusses the ancient Understanding of non-dual Reality - or Reality as Conscious Light.
It is also published with the title Reality Is All the God There Is.

http://global.adidam.org/books/ancient-teachings

This reference is also about the paradoxical nature of non-dual Reality
http://www.beezone.com/AdiDa/EWB/lastwords.html

Well, here you go again Peter, quoting from a disproved Myth? Inasmuch as the archaeological record tells a very different tale?

Therefore and given the central tenet of the tale, escape from Egypt is disproved by mounting evidence;meaning, everything that relies on it is questionable including the 14 commandments and a jealous God?

If there is a God he, she, it, seems at first Glance, to be totally impartial and disinterested in men to the point of callous indifference; and no more than we giving a cursory examination of a colony of scurrying ants? Before deciding which one to grind under the heel of the boot?

However, reincarnation and unavoidable KARMA suddenly changes the perceived indifference and converts it into, so as you sow, so also shall you reap, perfect sense and complete earned justice.

That said, I like to believe that the creator and I'm completely unable to dismiss a creative force, is personified by unconditional love and inclusive brotherhood; indeed real unconditional love is responsible for our finest hours, oft heroic experiences and examples, when motivated by just that?

No greater love hath a man than he should lay down his life for another!
Alan B.

Naturally the scriptures of any successful religion will be written or rewritten in forms that anyone can use to justify anything they want to do; that's what makes a religion successful. But there's no reason whatever to think that the original authors imagined they were doing anything but relating factual history.

But Peter now seems to be swinging away from his earlier apophatism towards an extreme fundamentalism. Perhaps his superiors have stepped in. If not, this is a very worrying trend from the perspective of his mental health.

god was created in the image of man to enslave the ignorant masses. There is a higher consciousness which will make us truely free but this will take much courage , love and original thought.

Probably, the 'escape from slavery in Egypt' is a garbled folk memory of the expulsion of the Hyksos invaders from Egypt. Or perhaps it's some clever 'spin' to portray the invading Hebrews as victims rather than aggressors.

It's just a series of rather unfortunate events that transformed the deity of a minor Near Eastern people into the West's major religion--- the result was a millennium of cultural and economic stagnation.

"There is nothing outside of the text." Derrida