Monotheism - going from one god to no god in one easy belief

I have been reading some interesting articles today, one leading me onto another. I first started reading about an article by Richard Dawkins after the September 11th attack in 2001, with the title

Stop respecting religion and start submitting it to the same scrutiny as any other idea or argument

actually the first part of the article starts with this

Stop respecting religion and start submitting it to the same scrutiny as any other idea or argument, says Richard Dawkins. And September 11th 2001 makes this scrutiny more urgent than ever...

In the article Dawkins mentions the religion has been the cause of many violent atrocities and conflicts in the world, which always strikes me as incredible odd and something which I can never really understand. Why religion is so intolerant of other religions, in fact why is religion so intolerant of many things and peoples ideas. It always strikes me that religious people I would expect to be the most tolerant and forgiving but always seem to be in the media complaining about things. My comment is probably an inferior rehashing of Dawkins and Gore Vidal and I would recommend you read those articles for a more intelligent discussion of the subjects of religion and Monotheism, read the rest below if you want my thoughts on it.

In the article Dawkins quotes Gore Vidal and his essay - The Great Unmentionable) Monotheism and its Discontents –

This essay by Gore Vidal goes into a good deal of depth about not being able to discuss religion and is well worth reading.

I didn’t know what Monotheism meant so I had to look it up

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/monotheism
Monotheism
mon⋅o⋅the⋅ism
[mon-uh-thee-iz-uh m]
–noun
the doctrine or belief that there is only one God.
________________________________________
Origin:
1650–60; MONO- + (poly)theism

The idea of one god always brings a forth intrigue from me, intrigue in what religious people make of this. If there was one religion and everyone believed the same religion with the same god, although I would think this foolish to believe in a god, you would at least give it a bit more credence being based on the fact everyone who believes in god is believing in the same one, some strength in numbers or at least consistency. Basically if everyone who believes in a god all believed in the same god then I could entertain the idea of plausability. The current situation of many different religions and gods seems to contribute to the argument of no god existing.

I myself think Football should be classified as a religion and each team as a different faith because it also is based on illogical, hereditary or environmental (e.g. where you live) conditions.

The fact is there are hundreds of different religions featuring many different gods. This must surely raise a few doubts or questions to religious people, one story about a God creating the world and you doubt it, many stories of different gods creating the world and now you are thinking, well they can’t all be right but how do we know which one is true?

The question of knowing which religion is correct is an impossible one to answer, all the religions are based on faith and not facts. So you could read about all of them but get no nearer the truth.

In the initial article Dawkins focuses on how society is conditioned not to questions religious beliefs and indeed we often tell each other never to discuss religion or politics are you have had a few drinks. The reason why we should discuss these topics is because they are based on faith and not facts, you won’t be able to prove to a religious person God doesn’t exist and in the same way they can’t prove to you he does, so all you have left is a lot of hot air. Politics is based on ideology but it’s difficult to discuss it because it is based on a number of topics with people arguing different and unrelated points, leaving you with more hot air.

Dawkins also mentions an article from the late and great Douglas Adams and his article “is there an artificial God”

The Douglas Adam article I recommend reading because it’s humorous, thoughtful and informative, a delicious mix.

So I will finish with thinking about the new word I have learnt Monotheism, the belief there is only one god. How do religious people come to terms with this, they must realise if they had been born in a different country they would believe in a different religion and god. What do religious people think about all the people who believe in a false god? They must think those poor misguided fools, dedicating their lives to pray and worship a god that doesn’t exist, can’t they see that might god is the only one that exists.

I would say to those religious people, the thoughts you have on the people who believe in a god that doesn’t exist are the same thoughts I have about the god you believe in and all the reasons you have to explain why the other religions god’s don’t exist could be used to explain why you god doesn’t exist. Surely there can’t be all these gods and if there was only one, why would he let all these people believe in the wrong god, why doesn’t he just pop down to earth and let the whole world stop spending time fighting, arguing and talking about which god exists.

Of course if he did that I would have to find something else to write about, so hopefully he will wait a few days before he puts in an appearance otherwise this article will all seem rather silly but I’m fairly confident there won’t be any sightings for a while.