Here’s a quote from a recent posting by Andrew Sullivan:
What the defenders of the Flying Spaghetti Monster thesis' commensurability with actual theism fail to recognize is that belief in God generally doesn't have anything so "concrete" as its substance. It's not the particulars of God -- the "invisible man in the sky" imagery and such -- that matter. In some sense these particulars aren't the content of theist belief at all; it's the "consequences" of God -- moral compunction, cultural taboo, social phenomena that amount to a de facto eschatology, etc. -- that actually constitute theism. And when measured by adherence to behaviors consistent with this belief, atheism suddenly appears much rarer.
And that, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is what I’ve been trying to formulate into words both respectful and logical. The “particulars” of the monotheist religions of the desert are truly irrelevant. What is important is the social contract, the “consequences.” “Do unto others” is far more important than a virgin birth or a resurrection or a single anthropomorphic deity.
When that basic reality becomes dominant in religious thought and seminaries, the world will be better off.
Unfortunately, researching the answer to a religious cui bono indicates that the power/money behind the current religious thinking will not cede anything to logic or the betterment of the planet’s occupants.
There’s one current theological dictum with which all can agree: Man cannot grasp the reality of the godhead. And since that reality extends far beyond an anthropomorphic supreme being, we’re all agnostics. We simply don’t know because we can’t know.
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