Excerpt #70 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
“Do you believe in God?” people ask us.
What is it that they are really asking?
They are asking if we belong to their tribe.
They are asking if we are a member of their club.
RELIGIONS ARE MIND CLUBS.
I remember when I first joined Sam’s Club, a wholesale buying club
for consumers.
People in the store treated me differently than in other large stores.
I wondered what was going on.
Then I got it: I was a member of the tribe.
Membership changes everything.
I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose. – Clarence Darrow
Back to the question, “Do you believe in God?”
How can one answer such a question!
The question itself is outrageous.
What is meant by a “god”?
What and whose god or goddess?
The questioner must define precisely what he or she means by a “god.”
Only then can one respond to the question.
Of course, no one can really define what a god is as it is only a concept conceived by ourselves.
It is not the person who does not believe in these mythical fabrications that must explain him or herself.
It is the person who does believe in this sort of thing who bears the burden of proof.
To explain the origin of the DNA/protein machine by invoking a supernatural Designer is to explain precisely nothing, for it leaves unexplained the origin of the Designer. You have to say something like ‘God was always there’, and if you allow yourself that kind of lazy way out, you might as well just say ‘DNA was always there’, or “Life was always there’, and be done with it. – Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design