As a child, a human being's life consists mainly of laughter and the absence of responsibilities that go beyond having to attend school and helping around the house. When a child is hungry, he is fed. When he needs a roof to protect him from the weather, or a bed to get his rest, he is given shelter. When he feels insignificant, he is shown love. When he feels alone and despaired, he's given guidance. That's what a child gets from his parents: food, shelter, love, and guidance.

Then the child ages and becomes an adult. As an adult, he no longer sees his parents as the shield behind which he is protected. Nor does he sees them as the bearers of the laborious hands that feed him. They still provide their love and guidance but they no longer have the same degree of impact in his life, as they once did. A human being seeks elsewhere for support.

It's during a human being's adulthood when God starts playing a greater role. In this stage, an individual believes God exists and that He can be the provider of all things good; that God is to be sought in times of need, and to be thanked for precious moments. At the same time, the adult human being realizes that everything has its price, and God's grace is no exception. In order to attain it, he must learn how to please God and turn the learned into the practiced. The individual then turns to religion.

Religion is presumed to be the blueprint to God's grace. Those who abide by the terms dictated by their religion live under the idea that they're getting God's favoritism in return; either as a direct result of living under the standards set forth by their religion, or by abiding by said standards and complementing that with the individual's genetic make-up. Regardless of God's criteria for choosing His favorites, all believers claim to hold an accurate perception of God and how to go about fulfilling His will; each upholds his views of God above those of others in disagreement.

A believer would describe his purpose in life as being the fulfillment of God's will. In the process he finds himself being an integral part of a larger group consisting of fellow practitioners with ideas in common. Because he believes there's a God, and that God has a relationship with those who abide by His ways, the individual believes that he is significant as a result of holding a bond with the most significant of all beings, God. Furthermore, he holds the view that there's no greater force than that exerted by God, and His force acts on behalf of those who have faith in Him. That's what makes religion a viable option: it is deemed adequate by those who seek a sense of purpose, belonging, significance, and protection.

In reality, religion is humanity's greatest deceit. It is the justification behind all actions; moral and immoral. It keeps some from killing, and it leads others to kill. It keeps the oppressed from realizing the actual degree of their oppression and it grants the oppressors justification for their mischievousness. It differentiates right from wrong, but it fails to keep all of God's followers from cutting each other's throat.

Religion does have its positive aspects. When practiced in conjunction with abidance to the laws of man, it is a factor in keeping its practitioners away from trouble. For one thing, the rules set forth by God are the core of those set forth by man. To live by either one is to significantly satisfy the other. Second of all, those believers who have no fear for man-inflicted consequences resulting from breaking the law would likely reconsider if they are convinced that God would not condone the action.

However, religion is not proclaimed by believers as being merely a tool for crime deterrence. Instead, it is considered to unveil God's will and His directions for attaining it. As such thing, religion is a farce inasmuch a treasure-map that accurately describes a path but fails to lead to treasure. Those who practice a religion will find examples of accuracy in its teachings, just as treasure-hunters will think they're coming closer and closer to the treasure each time they spot along their path items/locations described in the map. In the end, religion and treasure-map are useless. The proof lies in the fact that the treasure-hunters will come to no treasure, and the believers will not reach God, simply because the treasure does not exist, and neither does He.

Perhaps the most common "solid evidence of God's existence" deals with the creation of the world and everything that inhabits it. When asked to prove that God exists, believers bring up the same question: "If there's no God, who created you and everything around you?" They reason that every single thing has a creator, and the creator of all things is God Himself. When asked, "who in turn created God?" they answer that "God is not a creation, He has always been God." Such explanation is contradictory to their belief that nothing comes out of nowhere, and that everything has its creator. It also denotes an ignorance of a better answer, akin to Archie Bunker's phrase: "God don't make no mistakes. That's how He got to be God."

It's in the nature of the believer to attribute to "God" anything that will characterize Him as creator of all things, omnipotent, omniscient, ever-present, caring, loving, etc., etc. After so many centuries that their religion has had of practice, they've devised explanations for the slightest of thing. It suffices to believe that there is a God in order to consider any of those explanations as solid evidence of His existence. After all, those who perceive that there is a God don't need any more reinforcement than that already instilled. To them, there is a God, and everything that takes place around them can be explained on the basis of that idea.

In much the same way, an atheist does not need to justify to himself the reasons for not believing that there is a God. It's simply something instilled in him. It's a perception that he cannot rid himself of, no matter how many times he has found himself in bed, giving God the benefit of the doubt, pleading to be turned into a believer, seeking a sense of belonging, purpose, significance, and protection. The mornings after such nights, the atheist wakes up, still an atheist.

A human being who believes in God credits Him for everything that is wonderful about life. If there's a rainbow in the horizon, the believer smiles and thinks "Ah, that's one of God's marvels. There is indeed a God." On the other hand, a human being who denies the existence of God relies on negative events that take place around him to further instill in himself the theory that God does not exist. If a natural disaster destroys a temple, the atheist sarcastically exclaims "So much for Mr. omnipotent, caring, and loving!" Ultimately, the difference between believers and non-believers is their intuitive awareness, and mine says that God is not the creator... He is the created.

Afterword

I do not sense the existence of a Supreme human being, but I cannot venture to say that I'll die holding that view. I've come across older people who say to have been in my situation when they were younger, and they've given me reason to consider the idea that my "atheism" is just a stage in my life and as such, it's not to last forever.

Although I do not believe there's a God, don't expect to see me in the ten o'clock news: "The Humanflesh-Eating Serial Killer Has Done It Again!" True, I do not believe in God, but that aside, I could win the "Churchboy of the Year" award. My morals and those of a good churchboy run in parallel to a great extent; it's our incentives/justification in fulfilling them that differ.