An imaginary divine entity that was invented by people and religions attempting to explain the unexplainable? Meh.
But I am curious, knowing that believers and non-believers are eternally at odds and nothing said by either side will ever change others' opinions, what is the point of even bringing it up other than to stir up a fruitless argument?
I grew up with God being the most important thing. I went to Christian school from kindergarten through eighth grade with teachers who played favorites. I wasn’t one of their favorites, so God was always on their side and not mine. They really loved my half-brother when he went to that school, even though he was the school bully. He could do no wrong to them. I did everything wrong, wrong hair, wrong clothes. My hairstyle was somehow un-Christian so the principal tried to make my dad make me change it. Dad stood up for me and refused.
I grew up going to church every Sunday morning. We always went to the early service because that was somehow more spiritual. We always had to sit in the front row. The time after the church service was spent listening to mom kiss the pastor’s butt and always trying to get in with the in-crowd at church. I guess I never learned the importance of being thought of as a great woman of faith *rolls eyes, Ugh* by the important people at church like my mom was.
No - not even in 10th place. Religions use "God" as a means of subjugating the people to do what they want for fear of angering some non-existent force that might smite them.
If you do smite someone make sure you use the past tense of "smote," when describing the incident. This is to keep Randy D off your back and you from getting a ticket from the grammar police.
Using God as a means of getting people to do what someone wants eventually stops working. My husband grew up with a religious grandma who played the “Obey your parents” card all of the time when he was a kid. Now when someone says to him “The Bible says..”, his response is usually “I don’t give a flying f*** what the Bible says.” That usually ends the argument right there.
My personal relationship with God is, like all honest ones must be, entirely subjective. I'm grateful for it, probably not sufficiently so. As far as mainstream religion goes, you could call me an "apostate" given that it's been hijacked. Mohandas K Gandhi's immortal quote is more apposite than ever: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike Christ."
Kittigate 
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