God is a relative 'abstract' concept, sort of like love....or maybe more like jealousy. Not sure.

Submitted by Flash (United States), Nov 8, 2007 at 22:54

Dogs -while not knowing how they 'think' - probably view us humans as 'Gods' - the domestic ones. Feral dogs, if they catch you out in the open, and you are truly 'alone' -- your 'holiness' will not keep them from eating you alive. Point? I think all of the prophets - the major ones - have it right. Our superlative reasoning abilities and intelligence, relative to other contemporaneous speices, really does default the construction of a human-centric 'GOD' concept - to us. How convenient.

The human species probably is the most God-like biological being to ever have excreted waste upon the surface of this planet.........so what? Here we are, gifted way beyond any other species that we know of, and we STILL can not appreciate our own potentialities - for either sheer magnanimity or outright cataclysmic destruction. I have lived 45 years on this planet as a human and I know very little - relative to most formal educational institutions. But my life experiences have convinced me - beyond doubt - that our species is self-centered, complacent, apathetic and entirely unsuited for the stewardship of this planet.

Is Allah God? Is God Allah? Who cares? A more relevant question - are we humans really worthy of receiving any kind of a 'divine' revelation? If yes? Then why? Why not a DOG god? Or an ELEPHANT God? Or a......

My point - construction of any kind of a supernatural anthro-centric 'caretaker' - is an exercise in self-delusion - and is almost always nothing more than a method - or modality - or tool - to be used to explain away all of the VERY bad things that we humans do to each other and all of the creatures on this extremely fragile planet. Knowledge of 'God' is a silly idea - it is a human constuct to begin with. Knowledge of ourselves is a much more relevant and urgent need right now - religious prophets notwithstanding.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".