As a senior in a Catholic High School over 50 years ago it was suggested to me by my Religion/English teacher that I use logic to prove the existence of God, i.e. the universe is too complex to have happened by accident. I tested accordingly; the religious definition of God failed.
It is totally illogical that God walked along one of the beaches of his universe (there are more stars than grains of sand on all of our beaches), picked up one grain of sand and said to himself: “You are special. So special that I am going to create an animal to inhabit your surface and keep track of everything every one of them says and does and reward or condemn them accordingly”. It is also illogical that a vastly superior being would desire devotion and abject servitude. (Few humans (read "sick") would require that all of the lesser beings spend their waking hours demonstrating their admiration. Even a dog's attention becomes tiring.) There may be a God, or a hierarchy of Gods, but they have no resemblance to the Earth-centric deities espoused by the World's religions.
Religion is a necessity. There will always be people who need an entity on which to blame their shortcomings or conditions, that can absolve them of responsibilities and forgive them for their weaknesses. However, the reality is that these unhappy, insecure, irresponsible people are "organized" and use that organization to dictate world policies. Unless science or some unexpected happening can emphatically debunk these "illogical beliefs" I fear that the sheer volume of contradictory religious fervor will plunge the world deeper and deeper into instability.
Lawrence SchroederPrescott, AZ
