Belly, I think that humans create god/s in their own image. While religions probably had some kind of adaptive function, as suggested by Dawkins, it's well past its use-by date. This is because they all tend to divide people and create conflict in the contemporary globalised world, rather than uniting people in the smaller scaled societies in which they evolved.

Religion is the human cultural equivalent to the physiological appendix, which was functionally advantageous for our ancestors, but has now become a mostly benign and occasionally dangerous inheritance from the past.

Belly,

You would be pleased to have noticed that it is not just us filthy flies that have been attracted.

"The debate is not intended to center on one God, how truly strange Bizarre in fact, that In a world the worships many Gods we see a focus on only one."

Not so. The three major world religions all purport to subscribe to the same God even if they have different takes on God. It is not surprising that people assume that which is most likely.

"I doubt if the proof came, it exists , many would change."

You are in good company there. A wise man once said that if people are unwilling to accept religious teaching someone could rise from the dead and they still wouldn't believe.

"And the wisdom of the men ,normal human beings reinventing storys of another God,who set down rules to live by, in say the ten commandments are hard to better."

If you mean that is taught in schools I am not aware of it. I am not clear whether that is to be grouped with the preceding school comment or if you are expressing your opinion. If it is the latter I agree.

"Would humanity rebuild a different set of rules to live by, what would they look like."

That is a tough question given the small historical sample available to make predictions. I believe that the best guess is the mean based on the sample available. Therefore the best guess would be that it would be like those societies that have completely rejected religion. There have been a few examples. I can think of Cambodia with Pol Pot, the USSR with Stalin, Lenin etc. and China.

stevenlmeyer,

You are entitled to your faith. Thank you for sharing.

CJ Morgan,

The role of the physiological appendix was recently discovered. It is to be a store of "good" bacteria, where they can remain and re-inhabit the colon after being lost there by diarrhea and similar conditions.

Stevenlmeyer,

To measure God by the world, such as by referring to Him as "Creator", or "sending messages" is pretty primitive and trivialising. Such a god that is created by humans in their own image indeed does not exist.
Referring to religions as "true" or "false" is also a trivialization: Religions are just techniques, disciplines, etudes on the way to realize God. As such, they are suitable for certain people at certain times.

Pelican,

Whether or not humans maintain a moral framework is a human affair. Besides social values, having a moral framework is often also a useful spiritual exercise and most people practice it part-time.

Bollocks, bollocks and more bollocks

Yuyutsu wrote:

"To measure God by the world, such as by referring to Him as "Creator", or "sending messages" is pretty primitive and trivialising."

That is precisely what Muslims believe. Many mosque-attending Muslims have told me as much. All major Muslim webiste say it. Every Imam I have ever spoken to says it.

Why should I believe you over every Muslim source I have ever consulted?

You wrote:

"Religions are just techniques, disciplines, etudes on the way to realize God. As such, they are suitable for certain people at certain times."

Perhaps you would like to explain to the loved ones of this poor woman that she was stoned to death because her murderers were practising "disciplines, etudes on the way to realize God"

http://allafrica.com/stories/200911180938.html

Mjpb wrote:

"The three major world religions all purport to subscribe to the same God even if they have different takes on God. It is not surprising that people assume that which is most likely."

The three major religions in descending order of number of adherents are Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.

Some Christians claims that they and Muslims "subscribe to the same God", a proposition every mosque-going Muslim I've ever spoken to VEHEMENTLY denies. Why should I believe you over them?

Hindus are not even monotheists.

CJ Morgan,

Religion is long past its use-by date. On that at least we agree.

Stevenlmeyer,

"That is precisely what Muslims believe"

Thanks, I was not previously aware that their religion was as advanced!

"Why should I believe you over every Muslim source I have ever consulted?"

You don't need to believe me - but would you believe science? would you believe logic? do you actually believe then that some god who was created in man's image have created this world and sent us messages?

"this poor woman that she was stoned to death because her murderers were practising "disciplines, etudes on the way to realize God""

No, I am not aware of murder being a useful discipline. Religion is etymologically derived from "religare", to bind fast (with God). Being so inwardly-directed and intimate, one can only practice it on their own. Practicing it on others is totally useless.