God is everywhere!

"Tom Hanks invented Wilson on his island. " I don't understand the reference, sorry about that. "Are you suggestion that man created God just to create a fictitious benefactor of sorts. " I don't think it was purposely created as fiction. It's just that the thought comes "whoa, what if there's like. .. some bigger man somewhere up there that controls everything". .. some observations happen "hey, look it's that guy in the sky doing it again! ". .. then people start asking (praying) to this powerful figure for good luck etc. and when the prayers actually happen, people's beliefs are strongly reinforced. "Why would we do that and why would this sustain itself long enough to evolve into organized religion. " As explained, it's a natural process that sustains itself because there always were and always will be things we don't know and wonder about. To compensate for our lack of knowledge or to make ourselves feel better about not knowing, we give ourselves answers. This applies, for example, to things concerning afterlife. To make ourselves feel better, we believe in an afterlife (despite complete lack of evidence) because then we don't fear death so much. On top of that, we like to believe that if we're good in this life, we'll be rewarded in the next as incentive to be good in this life. Organized religion is based on just. .. standardized beliefs such as those mentioned above based on ancient texts that it's difficult to really confirm or refute because, well, we weren't there so we like to think that a longggg time ago, some representation of God visited us humans out of the kindness of his spirit to "enlighten" us. "It is the fascination of acquired knowledge that intensifies our appreciation of what is there. " I completely agree with you here, but while some people see God there, others look further and find other things as the cause. If we're going into personal anecdotes, I plan to be a scientist. I have done much research on a variety of science/biology related topics and have much amazement, interest and indeed appreciation for the world around us. However, I don't see God anywhere. This is partially why I don't at all connect with the anecdotes you present and the ideas that "we can all find God" because I've looked, but haven't found. This is also why I'm hoping/waiting for you to present more. .. objective arguments for his existence. "I do not believe in a personable God and your introduction of same to this conversation is a diversion" Not at all a diversion, you asked why people generally believe, and most world religions include a personal God and an afterlife, which is why I mentioned it as something one would want to believe if even given a shred of a reason. "If you go back to the origins of this phenomena you find early primate man attempting to contextualize his being within what he sees. " Exactly my point. This is why the beliefs exist, and can't be used as proof. "I am an atheist and I do not believe in any particular God. I can however experience and feel God in every action of my life, be it work, sickness, leisure or whatever. " No, you would be closer to a deist or agnostic. An atheist is one who claims that there is no God. Next, I, unlike you, do not experience God in anything and this claim can't really be used as evidence. In a way, I envy people who make claims such as yourself because I've never had such experiences. ". .. this is already becoming unreadably long. " Not at all, feel free to use all 10,000 characters, they're there for a reason. I'd like to note, sadly, that you haven't yet provided any evidence for God except beliefs themselves which. .. isn't really evidence. I appreciate your personal anecdotes, but as mentioned, they're not something I can really connect to.