‘Cum hoc ergo propter hoc’
Believers in the God myth conclude that anyone who’s tried to find God and hasn’t failed because he or she didn’t try honest enough, hard enough, or long enough. I for one wasted thousands of hours in my life searching for God. Most of the journey put more distance between myself and ‘Him’, although there was a point where I thought I just needed to try harder, and did so. There are millions of people in the world that have embarked on the same journey and reached the same conclusion as I have.
Let’s look at the issue from a rational perspective. If an experiment is conducted by millions of individuals, and the results are all over the map, we can safely assume that our original hypothesis is flawed. In this case, the God Hypothesis is proven as flawed since some find God, and others do not. Due to the lack of controls in the experiment this would not be considered a scientific trial, but the case for God defeats itself either way: if to find Him we need a controlled environment over which we have practically zero control, God is not accessible to everyone despite the claim that we simply need ask him to step into our life for it to happen.
To give a superstitious example of how religion functions: A man walks under a ladder, proceeds to cross the street, and is hit by a bus. To someone believing that walking under a ladder is bad luck, the cause of the painful end result is clear. The man was killed because he walked under the ladder! On the other hand, a rational mind will look at the event and conclude that the accident likely happened because the man did not look both ways before stepping out onto the street.
In similar fashion, religious individuals apply their superstitious beliefs to reality, all while dismissing the many other possible causes for their experiences. You’ve joined a church and your life turned for the better? Being part of any close knit community can do that. You asked God for strength and received it? Millions of people find strength within themselves, without belief in God - that is where your strength came from. Have you led a troubled life until you asked God to come into it? You’ve found a way to clean up and attributed the end result to God. You believe that God was your saviour because every believer told you that He would help you, and now through your own false association you are perpetuating the myth.
Correlation does not equate causation (Latin Cum hoc ergo propter hoc - “with this, therefore because of this”). There are dozens of things I could attribute to a God, every single day. Interesting coincidences, wants fulfilled, dreams come true. If I was to act the part of a believer for just one day, I could further inspire any true believer in the power of God simply through reinterpreting the events of my day through the God lens. Through my playing with their minds, believers would add to their arsenal more anecdotes which they perpetuate to indoctrinate others.
This is how the God delusion feeds itself and survived through millennia. People that want to believe, interpreting reality in ways that support their theory instead of reflecting reality. We all do it to some degree, but theists are really masters when it comes to this kind of self deception.
There are well documented benefits that stem from faith and religion, but they fall under the placebo category and in no way prove the existence of any God. Unlike a placebo which comes without direct side effects, religion has plenty.
Imagine for a minute that there is no afterlife. How would the knowledge change your day to day behaviour if you knew that this life is all we have? Well, for one people would cease dieing in the name of God, Jesus, Allah, and any other mythical entity they happen to have faith in. Every year, millions of lives would be saved through allowing modern medicine do its job. Spread of deadly diseases would be curbed through 21st century family planning and precautionary measures. The list goes on and on.
I don’t know anyone that wouldn’t be comforted by the proposition of an eternal and blissful life. If any atheist thought it true - if only we could believe in the right God -, trust me, we’d all quit our jobs to search for the Lord. What a wonderful investment it would be!