Hey, I'm 67 and still in pursuit. I've not yet found happiness but am thoroughly enjoying being waylaid occasionally in the pursuit.

Dear Yuyutsu,

God is a creation of the human imagination. The God one human’s imagination creates need not be the same as the God another human’s imagination creates. It is possible to imagine one god, and it is possible to imagine many gods. Humans have done both. One cannot prove that unicorns exist. One cannot prove that unicorns do not exist. However, there is no evidence for the existence of unicorns or God. Because you think there is a god is no reason anyone else should.

You may believe what you will. However, a belief may not be a fact.

Dear Ipso Fatso,

The brain is not a computer. A computer cannot feel emotions, cannot act in other ways than it is programmed to act and can process numerical information much faster and more accurately than any brain can. Our bodily functions to a large extent are not even controlled by the brain. The autonomic nervous system which controls bodily functions is mainly not in the brain.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS), formerly the vegetative nervous system, is a division of the peripheral nervous system that supplies smooth muscle and glands, and thus influences the function of internal organs. The autonomic nervous system is a control system that acts largely unconsciously and regulates bodily functions, such as the heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, pupillary response, urination, and sexual arousal. This system is the primary mechanism in control of the fight-or-flight response.

The autonomic nervous system is regulated by integrated reflexes through the brainstem to the spinal cord and organs. Autonomic functions include control of respiration, cardiac regulation (the cardiac control center), vasomotor activity (the vasomotor center), and certain reflex actions such as coughing, sneezing, swallowing and vomiting. Those are then subdivided into other areas and are also linked to autonomic subsystems and the peripheral nervous system. The hypothalamus, just above the brain stem, acts as an integrator for autonomic functions, receiving autonomic regulatory input from the limbic system

Dear Ipso Fatso,

Speak for yourself if you like - I am not an operating system.
My brain has an operating system as well as a "colour monitor" if this is how you like to describe it.
I am, among so much more and as an inaccurate manner of speech, the "owner" of my brain, the "author" of its operating system and the "viewer" of its monitor.

That brain of mine will one day stop, its operating system will no longer run and its screen will go blank. None of that will affect me.

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Dear David,

I am very happy for you that you found happiness in your family.
But have you found permanent everlasting happiness, or only a temporary one?
For any happiness that depends on finite things, must itself be finite.

Anyway, you claimed that "God is a creation of the human imagination".
As I noted earlier, we proved in primary school even that God does not exist (and since you agree, I believe that there is no need to elabourate). The creations of human imagination do exist, hence your premise fails.

Dear Yuyutsu,

Firstly you will find I was pretty careful with my language.

Secondly when you say:

"You were speaking of "your [=my] God" and "the position of the God they follow": there cannot be more than one God, thus it is not possible for different people to follow different Gods, even if they are so deluded that they think they do."

It follows that you also can't discount there could be less than one God. If that is the case then the 'concept of sin' has no validity in reality.

Your personal rather than a physical reality is different to mine. You have few means besides indoctrination to impart your reality to me therefore your concept of sin stays bound to you.

You are welcome to it and I hope it brings you happiness. But that is all.

Dear SteeleRedux,

There is of course no such thing as God, for God is not a thing, nor is He a person.

I was not speaking of personal realities - the Latin word 'Persona' means "theatrical mask" and as such we undoubtedly each wear a different mask in this play of life. God is not a mask, but what we are behind all masks. So long as we fall short of knowing what we truly are, which is God, and instead identify as a 'person' with this or that personality-mask of ours, that being the case we live in sin, we miss our true identity.