I think it all depends on one's definition of "god", and what we want to do with it / why we bother with it. Spooky thing that created the universe? Logical absurdity - what created that kind of god? All-powerful, all-good, omniscient, omni-present conscious entity independent of space-time? I'm sure we'd have to prune off a few of those qualities due to the Problem of Evil (why is there evil in the world if such a being exists?). Are there human cultural archetypes that humans can use to psych themselves up to do extraordinary feats of strength, endurance, creativity or intellect? Sure, and if they didn't exist we'd invent them - super-memes, Big Ideas that have proved useful to us. That to me is a god. I don't worship it like Xtians worship theirs - they're archetypes, they're not an emotionally needy supreme being - but I can call them into me to get me through bad times or optimise my good times. That's what I think they're for. I think we have a capacity and a need for creativity & narrative which logic alone doesn't fulfil. This is the realm of dreams & visions, our cerebral defrag routine, making sense of the illogical by creative narrative means. You can choose to believe the illogical while not throwing out the logical - I can say I believe in Mercury or Thor or Papa Legba, and be able to picture them & really believe in them with my figurative brain, but with my logical brain still know that gravity pulls you down, electricity powers my Mac, and water's wet. The trouble with religion is when you let the figurative rule the logical.
Are there human cultural archetypes that humans can use to psych themselves up to do extraordinary feats of strength, endurance, creativity or intellect? Sure, and if they didn't exist we'd invent them - super-memes, Big Ideas that have proved useful to us. That to me is a god. I don't worship it like Xtians worship theirs - they're archetypes, they're not an emotionally needy supreme being - but I can call them into me to get me through bad times or optimise my good times. That's what I think they're for. I think we have a capacity and a need for creativity & narrative which logic alone doesn't fulfil. This is the realm of dreams & visions, our cerebral defrag routine, making sense of the illogical by creative narrative means. You can choose to believe the illogical while not throwing out the logical - I can say I believe in Mercury or Thor or Papa Legba, and be able to picture them & really believe in them with my figurative brain, but with my logical brain still know that gravity pulls you down, electricity powers my Mac, and water's wet. The trouble with religion is when you let the figurative rule the logical.