How would yo explain this..

[CobraStallone]

For the religious side of this forum. Ok, so there have been humans around for about 200,000 years, (that's a scientific fact and cannot be refuted with the findings and technology we currently have), but the belief in that ONE God in the Abrahamic religions didn't exist untill about the 13th century BCE. Why would god revel himself untill then? Why did He not reveal himself to the peoples of America untill the spanish missionaries got there? And the very first statues and icons of divinities show a big breasted round woman, so it is not like if He revealed himself and was forgotten or corruptede into other gods. How would you explain this to me? a non-believer.

[DekuTrash]

Had all of his attention concentrated on the west?

Simply way to much going on there during that span of history, he forgot he had the other half of the planet just sitting there.

[Portuguese Rebel]

For the religious side of this forum. Ok, so there have been humans around for about 200,000 years, (that's a scientific fact and cannot be refuted with the findings and technology we currently have), but the belief in that ONE God in the Abrahamic religions didn't exist untill about the 13th century BCE. Why would god revel himself untill then? Why did He not reveal himself to the peoples of America untill the spanish missionaries got there? And the very first statues and icons of divinities show a big breasted round woman, so it is not like if He revealed himself and was forgotten or corruptede into other gods. How would you explain this to me? a non-believer.

Oh oh let me try...

God's designs cannot be understood by us... The time wasn't right... He tried but we failed to get the message... The aztecs already knew Jesus... yadda yadda...

That about it really...

[DekuTrash]

That really didn't answer his q......
Seeing as you're atheist

[Markas]

It's a favourite Hitchens proposition and so far I have not heard any satisfactory explanation from the believers.

[Amorphos]

He had to wait until we had evolved sufficiently ~ irony.

Anyways, Akhenaton invented monotheism and the jews didn’t get it until 6c bc, moses and Abraham were pagans. Seams like the product of isolation to me.

[Helm]

Perhaps God waited until such time as mankind was advanced enough to be able to write and spread his word. Ideally he should waited until the telecommunications age.

[Amorphos]

Perhaps God waited until such time as mankind was advanced enough to be able to write and spread his word.

Perhaps, but he didn’t need writing to speak to people and tell them there is only one god, this could have been carried on via storytelling just as it probably was to begin with anyway.

[Mikesmith08]

In my own belief God appears to us however it is best for him to appear. To Hindus he appears in many forms, for Christians and Muslims as one God, who's to say who's right but I would challenge the fact that in your first post you write it’s irrefutable that humans have existed for 200 thousand years. Science has been wrong countless times and for you to whole heartedly believe in it without question is virtually brainwashing on a larger scale than any religion can be accused of.

[Amorphos]

In my own belief God appears to us however it is best for him to appear. To Hindus he appears in many forms, for Christians and Muslims as one God

Surely the best way for him to appear is as himself? If he appears to hindus and other pagans as multiple then he is saying that is his truth to them. It would be far easier to be one god than many, and if he can divide himself up sao as to show himself as multiple then maybe the pagans have a case!

Secondly, why only choose to show himself as one relatively recently?

[Mikesmith08]

Surely the best way for him to appear is as himself? If he appears to hindus and other pagans as multiple then he is saying that is his truth to them. It would be far easier to be one god than many, and if he can divide himself up sao as to show himself as multiple then maybe the pagans have a case!

Secondly, why only choose to show himself as one relatively recently?

For us to try and understand why God does what he does is like an ant to trying to understand us. I don’t claim to know why or how I only believe. And how do you know who he is, what is 'himself'. No one knows, and it is only 'relatively recently' that, yes the idea in a one God came about but again who's to say who's right. Neither me nor you. I don’t understand why so many people have problems with religion.

[Amorphos]

We have a problem with it because in the past it dictated our lives and we don’t want those days to come back, I for one don’t have a problem with religion itself. I do think it is an ongoing process of exploration into divinity, but that can only be hampered by dogma. If the pagans believed their stuff was from god we would never have had monotheism. As I say I think it only arose when people were isolated, Akhenaton was isolated due to his physical appearance, and the jews due to their position in the world surrounded by powerful empires. This has a condensing effect, so naturally people start believing in one god so as to create unity.

[Mikesmith08]

I think that’s a depressing view on the world Personally, and if you judge everything on what it has done in its past you wont get very far in life. Capitalism, Communism, Islam, Christianity, America and Britain, Germany. Every country, person and organisation has had troubles in the past. Something as wide and diverse as religion cannot be summed up in one post as oppressing the world in its past, because quite honestly that’s a load of balls. What difference does it make that Jews were surrounded by enemies, if anything that helps a religious argument, in there darkest hour everyone turns to God for help for in your darkest hour is when you'll most need it, if I’m in a condensed society I wont immediately create a new religion and God because I’m Isolated, That’s circumstantial evidence used to create what seems like a logical argument .Stop looking at the world so scientifically like you know every detail about it. You either believe or you don’t, just because others do don’t take your problems up with them.

[Portuguese Rebel]

For us to try and understand why God does what he does is like an ant to trying to understand us. I don’t claim to know why or how I only believe. And how do you know who he is, what is 'himself'. No one knows, and it is only 'relatively recently' that, yes the idea in a one God came about but again who's to say who's right. Neither me nor you. I don’t understand why so many people have problems with religion.

See, what did i told you? God's designs cannot be understood by us... yaddah yaddah...

[Amorphos]

Hey PR

My answer to that would be… If there was a design it could be. Why would an infinite being have a design and why would it be anything other that what we see around us.

but yeah all questions and answers mean nothing.

[Fiyenyaa]

Science has been wrong countless times and for you to whole heartedly believe in it without question is virtually brainwashing on a larger scale than any religion can be accused of.

I think you'll find that when science is proven wrong, people adjust their views accordingly, if the proof is good enough. There is nothing immutable about science.
I think this makes it far more valid than any viewpoint which will not change no matter what evidence is presented to it.

[Tankbuster]

I think you'll find that when science is proven wrong, people adjust their views accordingly, if the proof is good enough. There is nothing immutable about science.
I think this makes it far more valid than any viewpoint which will not change no matter what evidence is presented to it.

And most of the time the solution is simply adapted or expanded, rather than changed; just look at physics, biology, chemistry... There are very few instances when we actually had to abondon a theory that had been around for a long time (only the flogiston fiasco comes to mind, and that's 300 years ago).

Oh please. Science has no idea when and where man came from anymore than a bum on the street does. Science is always changing its "facts" to fit new evidence that they discover, and you know that.



God revealed himself to Adam, so he presumably told his children about God. Thus, only people who willfully disobeyed lost the knowledge of God. Plus, after Noah, all men had a chance to know about God, but corrupted the knowledge and preferred to worship the creation, not the Creator. Abraham's line was the only large mass of people who continued to follow God (at least in word, if not in deed), as everyone else was completely lost in idolatry.

The first idols set up were not images in the sense that we think of, but were pillars and such. Later people began to use human representation, but AFAIK, animal representations of deity also predate those (but I may be wrong on that). Excuse my ignorance, but where are these "earliest big breasted round women" statues you speak of?

What is this...'Adam' thing, you keep going on about?

[CobraStallone]

Science has been wrong countless times

Unlike religion?

[Chaigidel]

so in 200 thousand years of history you claim to have records of all the faiths that passed our minds?

monotheism could have risen and fallen dozens of times; as could have everything else.-- you cannot claim knowledge of the full extent of human knowledge and thought during that sort of an expanse of time.

[Amorphos]

Good point, for starters many isolated communities e.g. on small islands may have believed in one god, and many pagan communities did indeed belief in one local god. It wasn’t until later that people started gathering these gods together into pantheons and the like.