Just how evolved are we and how does that impact our ideas about god ? ?

I agree with you, but you missed some important points.

The Greek and Romans had many gods and goddesses, but they were considered to be aspects of an over-god. It was a way of breaking down an entity too big to understand into manageable bits.

So, you'd have Demeter, who was the goddess of abundance, an attribute of the over-god, and one of Demeter's sub-goddesses was Isis, the goddess of abundant life.

It really was an elegant system - I'm not convinced that mashing all of the gods together into one being was an improvement.

Peasants were not only not taught to become literate, it was a crime for them to learn some languages in ancient Britain - nobody except the priests could study the Greek language on pain of death.

And leeches were a good idea, just badly applied - we use medical leeches today in medicine to clear dead blood cells from transplant sites - many of the "old ways" in medicine are being investigated and found to have merit.

But I agree that we are still very primitive. Out adherence to science as a way of thinking is barely a century old and religion still holds way too much influence over our lives.

Once religion starts to learn what science has learned about God, the old ways will die out and religion may become relevant to the world again.

If it doesn't, it will have to make way for ideas that work.

Frankly, worshiping the sun is a lot more sensible than worshiping a figment of ones imagination. The sun is real, and it allows life to exist on planet Earth.

Obviously, when you look at some of the more absurd beliefs we've held throughout history, humanity comes across looking pretty damn stupid. But we've also done some pretty amazing stuff along the way... some of which (like the pyramids) we still have trouble figuring out.

My guess is that in Biblical days, the vast majority of people lived in fear most of the time, and clinging to gods probably helped people to not go insane. They were tremendous psychological coping mechanisms, but probably didn't factor into peoples day-to-day lives in as significant a fashion as we sometimes imagine. For most people, gods probably spent a lot of time in the background, and were invoked when things went wrong, or became unbearable - just as they are today. The difference is, life is a lot calmer today, so gods aren't invoked nearly as often now.

Technically we are no more evolved today than we were ten thousand years ago, but we KNOW a lot more about how the world and the universe work. Our system of knowledge has evolved, but our humanity, and our emotions, remain unchanged - so the need for gods in times of difficulty remains unchanged.

i think that this is a really awesome question. i think this is something a lot of us struggle with. even as a christian, i find myself asking questions like this all the time. i think the real underlying issue isn't how evolved our God is, but rather how evolved our understanding of Him is.

in the old testament, the people were primitive and lacked the understanding, teaching, and developmental capacities that would come later in the time of Christ. assuming God knows all, He would deal with the people based on their level of comprehension.

in the time of Christ, the same holds true. God will deal with people based on their level of comprehension. you could study the bible and the times of the bible for a lifetime and never fully delve into everything the bible has to say. Christ came and changed the way people perceived "the sinner". He also dealt with people according to their situation and not according to their past, their sin, or any strict set of rules. He saw what was in their hearts.

what i think is important here is to understand that God, as an omnipresent and omni-knowing entity MUST know enough about us to know that we are each and every one of us different. we all need different things. we all learn, develop, and grow at different paces. that is the most important thing to me as someone who has gone away from and challenged my faith because of the way that people who call themselves Christians generally tend to forget this simple fact. they forget that it isn't so simple for many to just accept certain things. they become intolerant and blind to the beauty in the differences in others.

as i said, i fell away from and challenged my faith, but i didn't do it blindly and i didn't do it bitterly. i didn't get mad. what i did do was renounce the rules and try and figure out what was real and what was fabricated by others, and this simple rule is one i will ALWAYS abide by: God made everyone different for a reason and He loves them for it. everyone has weakness and things they can work on, it doesn't make them bad people. and even people in the deepest of sin can work their way out with the help of God, but it's a process, it doesn't just magically happen.

i hope any of was insightful. it's just the thoughts of a girl who had questions, found answers, and knows that God WANTS me to question my faith because He doesn't want mindless sheep. if He did, he wouldn't have given us free will.

Ironic isn't it. Our barbarism in all facets of life have been thrown by the wayside, but the barbaric explanation for the universe stands in the minds of many. Can they not see the ignorance of the fairy tale that they attest too? Perhaps. Should we blame them for spreading their ignorance? In an age of public education - the obfusication of knowledge by theists is a danger and thus the answer to our query must be, at every turn.

Are we more evolved than our ancestors from 15,000 years ago? Physically I'd say no. Technologically yes. We have the same brains and not everyone can adapt themselves to the new technologies, which may be one of the reasons we hold onto supernatural beliefs to explain the world.

We may have evolved but with superstitious, vicious ignorant theocons, like Palin and Bush, we are header for a theocratic dictatorship, and Stephen Harper is not far behind.

I,m not evolved, I,m created by God and thur him I have grown a great deal,,in love of my fellow man,,and my neighbor,

so I consider myself as well learned in the thing,s God has taught me.

how evolved do you want to be? By that, to what degree are you willing to increase knowledge, wisdom and spirituality? Or are we waiting for the rest of the world to just simply pull us along?

I like to think the fact that I don't have chest hair means I'm more "evolved" than the next guy...

:]

as evolved as every other species that currently lives on this planet.