To Belly.

You say all religion is man made. But does that mean all religious and spiritual experiences and events are fake? There's more to the equation then just the stance that all religions are man made. From there my thoughts go to which (if any) religion is right. It is from that search I've come to the conclusions to my own faith. You don't have to agree with my conclusions and my faith, but it seems unreasonable to think all religion (and spirituality within a religion) is man made.

As for the tax free issue. From what I can tell most religions build places of worship that also act as places of refuge. Regardless if the religion is correct or not, in times of natural or man made disaster the places of refuge are a welcome place to have and supported by being tax free. (That and many religions are the means that people are encouraged to go out into the world and help the helpless, be generous, or otherwise make the world a better place).

As for evolving, it doesn't exist. At least not in a social sense. We are the same people with cruelty, corruption, war, and many man made evils as we have ever been. It would be nice to say we are progressing to be better people, but each new generation has to relearn the same lessons that their grand parents or great grand parents learned. Saying that history repeats itself in my opinion is more honest then saying we've evolved. The best we can do is build up cultural structures to protect our future generations. Governments with restrictions on those in power, while still, having the authority and the laws to retain a peaceful presence are one of those social structures. As is family and teachings to be good people (often a main cause in most religions). Even with different government types though we haven't evolved socially. Crime, murder, and serial killers are sill a modern thing. As is greed and corruption.

No Now Soon I believe some force exists that we have not yet fully tapped in to, and it is spiritual, but that no God would bring us in to being, then let over 2000 others exist and claim the credit,just as we talk far differently country to country we invented different Gods, we too exported our God, mostly at the point of weapons evolution its what we teach our kids and know to be true but tuck away on Sundays

Dear NNS,

Since all religions are the product of human action it is ridiculous to deny that all religions are man-made. Please state which religions did not involve humans in their origin.

To Belly.

One thing to distinguish is whether the universe is held by a cosmic and spiritual force, or if it is held together by it's creator, God. Whether we can tap into that force, or whether the things we have and the world itself is a gift of God.

That said though, I'm glad to hear you say you at least believe in a spiritual force. It seems like much of the world is hard pressed to acknowledge at least that much. Even though it seems to be evident in so many ways on too many occasions. Part of my search for God (what true and what's not) started from His answers to prayers.

To David F.

Which religions did not involve humans in their origin. A lot if religions claim that the origin of the story is not with man or with mankind. God created the heaven and the earth sort of thing. The question comes back to if any of those stories are true. Which, if any, are really from God.

However, here is a different thought for you. You say that all religions are the product of human action, so they must be man made. But there are two holes in that line of thought.

First the underlying idea that God doesn't act on His own. If any story from any religion is true about how God or gods intervened with the world then that shows it came from God's actions not man's.

Second, the idea that man created religion can be countered on the premise of a religion's teachings, traditions, laws, celebrations, and rituals were given to man. That they didn't originate from men, but were given to them. This is the premise of a prophet. Giving a message is from God not from men.

From these two points you can look into whether

a) God has intervened in in the world. (Miracles, answered prayers, or in general that God or something intervened type of moments).

And/or

b) Any of the teachings or prophesies from a prophet turned out to be true.

NNS sorry look you should know I think you have only the best in mind for humanity, know too true believers in any faith are the best we have, but surely being part of the 30 percent in this country who put no religion on our census forms I and we have the right to think no God ever existed? if he/she did why let so many others exist, why kill in his/her name? why acts of pedophilia by his/her servents? I refuse to not think as I wish

Dear NNS,

You are free to believe in rubbish for which there is no evidence. For ages humans have controlled other humans by saying that God, Zeus, Apollo or other creations of the human imagination speaks through them. If there was such a thing as a God he, she or it would not need Jesus, Mohammed or any other intermediary. He, she or it could speak to us directly. You are free to believe in rubbish, but more and more humans are becoming aware that it is rubbish. Without an Inquisition or other instruments of control humans are free to reject the rubbish.