Every ancient society on Earth has created a god or gods, and the god man created has always resembled his creators. They have arms and ears and eyes, they are dressed in the fashion of the nobles of their day.

The gods of desert regions were dressed in flowing robes; the gods of the islands were dressed in grass skirts and those of northern cold climates were adorned with animal skins.

These gods hated and loved what their creators hated and loved. All these gods demanded praise, flattery and worship. Most of them were pleased with sacrifice and to most the smell of blood and burning flesh was the perfume of acceptance.

These gods have insisted on having a vast number of priests, and the priests have always insisted on being supported by the people. The principle business of these priests has been to boast about their god. To give commands on behalf of this god and to claim insight into how this god requires the people to live. Above all, their job was to insist that their god is the only true god and therefore worthy of fiscal support. When the people did not give sufficiently to this god (or to his priests – which was one and the same), or doubted this god or failed to follow after his laws, this god would open up the ground swallowing the faithless or pour out some pestilence or plague, cause a drought, failed crops, cover the known earth with rain and floods, thunder and lightning. Amidst such calamities the priests would declare that only through repentance, sacrifice and worship would these fearsome happenings be abateld.

None of these gods could give a true account of their supposed creation of this little earth, none even suspected it to be a globe, orbiting a star along with other planets and moons, surrounded by a vast universe of stars with even more planets and moons, billions of years old. None of these gods could expound on the greater wonders of this universe. None could explain it was the gravitational pull of the moon that controls the tides, nor could they explain the meteorological events creating a rainbow, a storm or flood or even why the sun seems to rise and set; such unexplained occurrences were clearly their doing and solely in their control. So great was the power of one such god, he even claimed to make the sun “stand still” and even turn back in order that his subjects could have enough time to conduct the slaughter of unsuspecting, innocent non-believers that he had commanded be killed. All gods supposed the earth to be flat and that the sun and moon had dwelling places to which they returned each day or night.

Each god promises happiness here and hereafter to their subjects, a beautiful place to meet loved ones who have died, and threatens to eternally punish in a hellish place those who disbelieve or suspect that some other god may be the true god. To deny the existence of this god was, and is, the crime of all crimes. Indeed all gods are man-made. Yes, even yours.

--Steve Willi--