What difference would it make if the Judeo-Christian-Muslim god turned out to be fictional?

at least my life won't change ( i am a Christian )

I like the teachings of the Christianity (peace, love, ....)

I like feeling that there is some one important who really really loves me (regardless of weather this feeling is true or false)

I like being in a community who like the same teaching, and share me the same point of view about what is "Good" and what is not

I like feeling that death is only the begin not the end (again regardless of weather this feeling is true of false)

Being believer gives me additional reason(s) to do the "Good" and avoid the "Bad"

So I'll stay Christian weather there really God or there is not

Well, for Jews it wouldn't make much difference because 80% of us say we don't assume there is actaully a conscious diety out there anyway. As one respected 19th century rabbi said, I don't believe in G-d, I believe in G-d's teachings.

Kind of ironic considering we're the ones who introduced the Gd character to the world through our literature, isn't it? And the two daughter religions are the ones where most adherents actually take the existence of the supernatural literally.

Jewish law isn't mainly about keeping a diety happy any more. Here's just one example...

When a Jew practices kosher eating she is practicing a tradition. By doing that she MIGHT be figuring she is showing a watchful diety, Gd, that she wants to do what he wants her to but as I said above, there's a good chance she doesn't believe there is something watching her.

By practicing this tradition, however, she is reminding herself every time she eats or serves someone that following rules about what's right and wrong is important to her. She is practicing self-discipline in a most basic aspect of life and thus reminding herself of the self-discipline she can have in other things. She is eating according to rules of humane-ness (animals that have been hunted for sport are not kosher, animals that could not be slaughtered as painlessly as possible are not kosher, animals that hunted other animals are not kosher, etc.) and thus reminding herself that she should take seriously that something had to die to feed her. She is choosing to identify with her culture, community, religion, history and strengthening those bonds.

Another example...

When Jews practice the Passover Seder we speak of ourselves and our history as having been slaves in Egypt and that now we should be good to others that are slaves, etc. Most of us know the stories are either distorted or downright mostly fiction. But this reminder about slavery is part of the reason that in the 1800s about 30 percent of American Jews signed the petitions to abolish slavery while only about 10 percent of the other whites in the country did. It's part of the reason that between a quarter and 30 percent of the whites arrested for marching along side souther blacks during the Civil Rights movement were Jewish even though only about 4 percent of the country was.

I've been spending too much time on YAnswers today. Gotta go.

-Glenn O.

Well that depends on whether you are Jew a Christian or a Muslim.

I am a muslim and I can answer that from MY perspective but not from the perspective of people from other faiths or even from others who share my own. Well I could but I would have to be dishonest because that would assume that I know how they would feel or what they would think and I don't .

As for myself there have been several times in my life when I doubted God and or refused to follow him. Less than 2 years ago I was saying that I believed in God but that him and I don't see eye to eye so I don't talk to him anymore.

Many if not MOST people of faith go through periods when their faith is tested or even outright lost. Some , including myself even try for a time to live a religion free life.

The thinmg is my VALUES are based in my belief system and I honestly believe that the values I hold are correct. This always leads ME back to the faith.

Faith is the belief in things that you can not see. The things that you cannot , at least for the time ,being prove. This applies to the faith that I have that I can finish college, the faith I have in my marriage, the faith that I have in God is along those same lines. It certainly is POSSIBLE that there is no God since I cannot PROVE it to your standards but I believe that there is plenty of evidence and being a muslim I don't think that the existence of God negates evolution either. I do not have tpo oppse science to maintain my belief system.

I am only slightly offended when atheists claim that it is all a fraud a nd a farce. I know that many have been led to believe that religion itself has always been a deliberate hoax initiated by a few to mislead the many. That may be true in a few cases but the vast majority are believed by the leaders themselves and are often misinterpretations of actual events. An example: dinosaur bones have been stumbled upon by humans for thousands of years. There is now evidence that the myths about cyclops and those about dragons are rooted in those finds. After all they did not have carbon dating. Soon after the ice age there WERE huge floods due to climate change and meltings glaciers as well as massive earthquakes. Such events would have wiped out entire human communities and would have SEEMED both global and divine in origin to the people who experienced them. The fact that flood myths are found in societies worldwide supports this theory as do the records of weather patterns during these times.

These stories were passed on in through the viewpoint of the peoplewho told them and so much of religion, while perhaps not correct is NOT a fraud even by SECULAR standards.

The POINT of religion to me is NOT the existence of God or the event or process of creation magical scientific or otherwise. God is the ONLY authority that transcends all of us. By being eternal and superior to human beings HIS wisdom supersedes our own and he knows what we do not. This is important when making moral boundaries for society. When God has demanded it it does not matter what my opinion is. There are boundaries that I do not like and ones that I do but my personal preference does not dictate what those boundaries will be and neither do yours or anybody else's . I know I am rambling a bit here but if you want to contact me to discuss particular points of theology and why they are or aren't valid or important I will be happy to hear from you. I will , God willing, only give honest non-hostile answers that can help you to understand religion even if you don't agree.

What confuses me though is why so many atheists fell it is necessary to tear down the faith of believers. Why does it bother you or them for me to have a religion? It does not bother me for you not to.

PEACE

Sleeping in on Sundays.

All it did to my life is make me more accountable and free up my Sundays.