The clearest evidence after careful pondering that humanity created God and God did not create humanity is the evolution of God as humanity has evolved. The Christian God that Christian's call Jesus Christ is widely known as a merciful but just God. A God that heals the afflicted and blesses those that do good as good is defined in Christian theology and withholds his blessings from those that do bad as defined in Christian theology. Christ while he was said to have lived on Earth was said to have taught his followers a moral and just way to live life. Christ taught as defined in the Bible He that is without sin cast the first stone when a group was ready to stone a woman to death for committing the sin of adultery. Christ also taught as defined in the Bible that everyone is a sinner. Therefore one can infer he was teaching none of humanity were capable of being righteous enough to condemn people to death as they were all with sin. Interpretations can abound however rather he was referring to just stoning or all forms of capital punishment, just referring to adultery or all sins, just referring to this specific woman or as a universal law applied to all of humanity. The fact remains though as the Bible story said he was in the very least pardoning this woman from being killed in the very way that the God of the Old Testament commanded that all adulterers shall be put to death leaving no room for mercy. This is one of many examples of the evolution of God as man has evolved. The God of the earliest part of the Old Testament was capable of being very cruel, then by the time we get to the God towards the end of the Bible In The New Testament God had evolved for whatever reason doctrine wants to say to be quite merciful.

The God of the Old Testament evolved to become more merciful because the Israelites evolved to become more merciful as their civilization evolved. Of course many of the Israelites continued with the old traditions but as evidence as the New Testament and other historical evidence, many began to rethink some of the harsher parts of The Law of Moses. The God of the Bible also happened to have the same biases and belief systems as the Israelites, or at least of the ruling class or most powerful or influential majority of the time. This phenomenon can also be seen with the Roman Polytheist and their many Gods. There Gods evolved over time and happened to have the same biases and beliefs as the Romans, or at least the ruling class or most powerful majority of the time and traditions were different in different parts of the Empire. In other words the God of the Israelites was an Israelite and shared common belief systems, biases, and culture as the Israelites. The God of Islam was Islamic and shared common belief systems, biases, and culture of the followers of the Prophet Mohammed. The Gods of the Romans were Roman and shared common belief systems, biases, and culture as the Romans. The Gods of the Greeks were Greek and shared common belief systems, biases, and culture as the Greeks. The Gods of Egypt were Egyptian and shared common belief systems, biases, and culture as the Egyptians. The Gods of the earliest cultures were connected with nature and fertility sharing the belief systems, biases, and culture as the hunter gathers. Many of these Gods evolved from earlier Gods which people then came up with these more modern traditions and as the God or Gods spread their sphere of influence those cultures imparted their own traditions on that God or Gods.

When the Christian God was adopted by the Romans the Christian God continued to evolve and necessarily become more Roman. When Rome fell Christianity continued and the nature of the Christian God continued to evolve and he necessarily evolved to become more European and Catholic. When the Reformation happened the Christian God evolved to become more Protestant. This can be seen even in America with Mormonism the Christian God evolved to become more American to more reflect the belief systems, biases, and culture of America at the time of Joseph Smith. God or Gods are merely the cultural creation of human beings and human societies to help impart meaning, an example of how it is said one should live, a reflection of human nature manifested into Godhood, an explanation to explain all that which humanity has not been able to explain, to offer comfort and solace in a cold, hard, cruel world that there is life beyond death and life beyond human limitations. The reason religion has continued to be such a central role to so much of humanity is because those same conditions exist. As John Lennon so eloquently said God is a concept by which we measure our pain as in his song entitled God. In other words human suffering has created the human desire for God or Gods. It is no accident the more hard a life people have often the more orthodox and devout religious people are. As life has gotten less painful in the West and life less hard religion has been shrinking. Now that times are getting more difficult as recent, religion will likely have a resurgence at least if people feel science and secular topics alone like philosophy, psychology, and self help are not enough to find solace.

Culture creates God, God does not create culture. Culture, human experience, and traditions creates moral law, God does not create moral law. Humanity created God, God did not create humanity. Human Beings exist but Gods do not exist. As comforting of the idea that there is a life beyond human limitations, life beyond the cruel fate of death, in the end a final judge and redeemer to have every wrong be righted and every unrepentant evil act against others be accounted for, to have the meek be comforted and evil men like Hitler be cast out in judgment, to have the blind see, the lame walk, loved ones lost to be raised up in perfect heavenly bodies, to have eternal and everlasting life; It Is Not. I wish it to be so as it is so much more preferable then the truth, human limitations will always be present in humanity, the cruel fate of death is the end of life, no one will ever right every wrong and besides the judgments by humanity in life evil acts and evil men will not be made right and not held to account, the meek will only be comforted by humanity and evil men only judged by humanity with all their limitations not a perfect God, the blind will see only if science and medicine allows them to see, the lame will walk only if science and medicine allows them to walk, loved ones who died will never live again, and life will only be as eternal as evolution and modern advances in science allows.

I realize this may be a most hard and sobering message to those of faith, of which I was too once a person of faith. However it should not be hard nor a sobering message. It should give us solace that we only have each other, our fellow human beings and that we must do all we can to create as perfect, just, and compassionate world as possible ourselves not rely on imaginary Gods. That we more further understand the true cost of taking a human life which never can be restored again as there is no God or afterlife. That we realize that only we individually and collectively can try to right wrongs and only we individually and collectively can forgive wrongs committed against us individually and collectively and only others forgive us for wrongs we individually and collectively committed against them. That we show compassion and empathy for our fellow humanity simply for the sake of altruism not heavenly rewards. That we love each other not because God commanded it but because we actually do love each other. That we show kindness to our neighbors and mercy to our enemies because we want a better world and we ourselves wish kindness and mercy was shown to us.

Many of these same principles are spoken of in many modern religion traditions so I am not trying to destroy religion, in as much as it helps people be better people and it is used for good I am in favor of it in as much as it makes people be worse people and it is used for bad I am against it. Religion also serves the role of shared collective experiences which is very helpful to the stability of societies albeit secular traditions can share the same role. Religion has inspired the most compassionate, selfless, and positive world altering acts in human history as it has inspired the most harsh, selfish, and negative world altering acts in human history. Religion has been instrumental in helping build and advance human civilization and it has been used to destroy and degrade human civilization. Religion has inspired peace and inspired war. Religion has been used for good and it has been used for bad. Religion will most likely continue to evolve and more people will continue to turn away from religion as advances in humanity and understanding occur. I will continue to be a non believer and I will continue to respect non believers and believers alike in their decisions. I only wish we lived in a world where non believers were more respected and most of us lived in families and had friends that were understanding. We do not live in this world, non-believers will continue to be persecuted for some time to come. The solution to change this is more of us to make our non-belief known and educate people how non-believers still believe in ethics and humanity in many cases I would say even more so.

A.C.M.