I have some questions I'd like to ask you. All of you.
The answers may prove useful in future discussion. I thank you for your time and input.
1) What does your religion/view of the world say about the beginning?
2) What does it say about humans in relation to everything else?
3) What does it say about God/gods?
4) What does it base it's authority/usefulness on? (IE: revelation, teachings, problems needing a solution, etc)
5) Does it have a single founding figure?
6) Did that founder in any way demonstrate their claim to authority as credible?
7) Do you think others/non-believers would find the alleged evidence convincing?
8) Where does human nature stand in your worldview? (IE: Good, mostly good, neither, bad, mostly bad)
9) What solutions does your worldview offer to human problems?
10) Is your worldview concerned with suffering as an evil?
1) That I wasn't there, at least in any way that I can remember it now. There are lots of stories about it, though, and some of those stories have more/better evidence about it, although of course there are still unanswered questions regarding the apparent beginning of the universe, and the Earth in its solar system.
2) Humans are entities, just like everything else. There's lots of ways to draw outlines of, and relationships between every thing that is, but individual humans are temporary nodes of matter and energy in a (or many) networks of things in relation to each other. We are all kin, relatives, parts of the same whole.
3) For a singular universal omnimax creator deity, not much. If such a thing actually exists, I cannot possibly comprehend it. That also goes for much lesser deities down to things that might be for all intents and purposes 'omnimax' but limited to the Earth, or even a portion of the earth.
When you finally get down to the size of things that I might actually be able to comprehend at least in part (mountains, a pond, a tree, etc.), I would hardly call them gods, even though I might recognize them as powerful spirits or entities in their own right.
4) Experience, learning, reason, and recognition that I'm just a little guy in a great big cosmos and am limited in my ability to perceive and conceive said cosmos.
5) Me? But certainly, I've learned a great deal from others.
6) Sure, I'm credible. But I also try to recognize my limitations and biases, and try to not be dogmatic, so that I might actually be able to learn new stuff.
7) Maybe, maybe not. What I accept is probably not what others will accept, and vice versa.
8) Categories such as good/bad, good/evil etc., only exist as relative terms. Humans, like all living things (and I think, all things, period) are. We are capable of being good or bad or indifferent (etc.) in relation to each other or anything else. The important thing is to be respectful in what you do.
9) If people were to follow my worldview, we'd as a society would live much closer to the land, and be much more careful and deliberate about what we do. For example, we wouldn't pump petroleum out of the ground in one part of the world, use it to make cheap plastic crap in another place in the world, and then sell it in yet another, all the while burning lots more to extract it and move it around...
10) Suffering is part of what living (and existing, really) is about. One should try to minimize the amount of suffering they cause, and treat those they harm with respect, and try to make up for the harms caused, at least among others, the relations of those harmed. Evil, as noted above, is a relative term--what is considered good for one may be considered evil by another, and vice versa.
