I believe that god and morals are not real, therefore god and morals are not real. Others believe that god and morals are real, therefore god and morals are real. This I believe: I believe that belief is real.
No matter one’s religious affiliation, moral standing, ethnic background, race, natural or preferred gender, or hair color, the simple act of truly believing creates the world we live in. There exists one single planet earth, but the world known to mankind is simply the world perceived by mankind.
I am an ex-full-fledged-Mormon-turned-Atheist. I know that god existed, he did, and he told me so. This god I speak of was not God, but simply god, my god, and no one else’s. He spoke to me, told me what to do, and led me through tough times. This god of mine, however, is dead, non-existent, and powerless to affect my life or the world around me.
People can perform miraculous healings and be healed miraculously through “the power of God”, but the only thing so miraculous about these so-called miracles is the great use of the placebo effect on the population of the world. The saying “Mind over Matter” has great leverage within the lives of these people. If you believe enough that a god can miraculously heal you in hours of a formerly terminal illness, then it shall be done.
For those of us who haven’t accepted this version of reality, it cannot be done, no matter how much we attempt to trick our brains into believing such a reality. However, a world without a god to rule over us, mine just happens to include science as an imperfect guide.
Now this belief is real for me simply because I believe it… but contrary to what I have just said, is it possible that this belief is all encompassing and universally true? Of course it isn’t, because not everyone believes in it. It exists simply as my own slice of customized reality.
We all must come to accept our own realities as we make them, but also realize that others have their own realities and to infringe upon those realities, unwelcome, is akin to destroying the world, at least the world of another individual.