Long and short I suppose:

I was Catholic. I still work in a Catholic church teaching teens about the church.

I wrote a bunch about the Catholic church and it's belief that experience is undeniable and in-debatable. I say that experience, in a Catholic sense[EDIT] is debatable. So let us journey!

Catholics have the Eucharist: Body/blood/soul/divinity in a piece of bread. They have something called the Monstrance. You place "Jesus" in it and pray to him.

Now some people have "experiences" in front to this bread. Cry, Laugh, whatever. I think that these experiences are all caused by DESIRE. The strongest motivator. You want something SO bad... Love, Happiness, forgiveness... I don't care... That your Psyche manifests those feelings.

Want to hear something funny? The last 3 infallible statements by the Popes have all been about Mary. Want to know what I think that means? SHES MADE UP. Or, her traditions I should say. Why does it take a very powerful man to tell you what to believe? Why does someone need to say: God wants this! Why doesn't God day it? Faith? Bullshit. CONTROL is more like it.

Religious institutions are made up for control of the masses.
Religious institutions are made up for control of the masses.
Religious institutions are made up for control of the masses.

ANYWAYS, Another thought was: Why do MOST, not all, MOST civilizations have an institution of Marriage. Most of those institutions have CERTAIN people that can "get you married" blah blah.. I wont go into details.

God, however, is THE REASON TO LIVE. So my question is... Why has He, They, She, made themselves KNOWN in an undeniable sense? Why are they different in EVERY civilization. You'd think the person would want to let it's people KNOW that it is God and that it is PURPOSE. Because that's what God is right? Purpose? What else does God serve as if not purpose?

Anyways.. That is kinda what my first rant was about.. I'm still thinking about my belief in God. I haven't quite figured it out yet..

Flame away.. But please flame RELEVANT things.. not stupid things.

The Ten commandments could easily be confused with 10 of the highest moral standards one could think of, or a council of some sort could come to the conclusion of. Even in a primitive sense.

"God, however, is THE REASON TO LIVE. So my question is... Why has He, They, She, made themselves KNOWN in an undeniable sense? Why are they different in EVERY civilization."

Thats an interesting statement, and very true. I'm not so into the "reason to live" part, but I can see the essence of what you mean.

But you're correct 'almost' every civilization does have some idol they worship, what if the fundamental instigation of this action is the same thing?

Atheism is of course excluded for reasons.

You've just made me think of a damn good question that I think will be damn difficult for certain segments of the human community to answer honestly:

  Would the Ten Commandments (or their equivalent) have been adhered to, no matter how obviously right they are, if we knew from the start what was behind them was a mere mortal and not something divine?

. . .

Come to think of it; Would Christianity even exist today if Jesus had not said "I am the son of God", even though he was quite obviously right?

"So my question is... Why has He, They, She, made themselves KNOWN in an undeniable sense? Why are they different in EVERY civilization. You'd think the person would want to let it's people KNOW that it is God and that it is PURPOSE. Because that's what God is right? Purpose? What else does God serve as if not purpose?"

why would God make himself known in an undeniable sense? what would be the point of believing in God if you were forced to beleive in him? And i rather enjoy the differences in different civilizations, and the different religions plays a significant part of that...  Also, in religion, God doesnt serve us, we serve God...

I have a simple reason for not believing in God that has nothing to do with intelligence or any measure of superiority.  If God exists the consensus is that my life will earn me some form of punishment after I die, if God doesn't exist my life will earn me oblivion.  It's kind of an inverted Pascal's Wager, whether I believe or not I'm doomed so why bother.

its funny how christian's ask god for mercy, but when man asked for mercy from the christians during the crusades, i guess god ignored the innocent.

whether or not God exists, or not, i think it stupid to follow a mass population in a "group".  people, no matter what thier motives, are very dangerous in mass numbers. it is best just to be an atheist or an agnostic to aviod a bitter end by mankinds destructive nature.

"Also, in religion, God doesnt serve us, we serve God..."

Blindly. So why does God not show himself so the Christians can worship an undeniable memory of their devotion, and us 'unbelievers' can be proven wrong and possibly change ways?

a true atheist should not "repent" when chaos arrives.  there is no God, we are animals cursed with the self awareness of the process of life and death.

some cultures and ancient societies were afraid of this.  With the human ability of creativity, we created a hero.  as cultures clashed, so did thier heroes, until they became all knowing, then, God was born.  Ancient Stories, in truth, we are all alone. but this is not a bad thing, i dont have a problem being one man part of a species with that powerfull of an imagination.  i cant wait to see what else we are capable of. 

doesn't anyone wish that you can get in a time machine just to have a glimps of what will become of the human species? will we be exterminated by a stronger alien race? will we conquer other alein races? will fokker ever find his yellow marble? such questions!

"why would an all-powerful being desire to show himself? why would he feel the need to prove his existence?"

Probably for the same reason such a being would desire our worship in the first place (that is of course working under the assumption that God has actually talked to a few people and told them to tell people to worship him).

"if he did prove himself to everyone, wouldn't everyone have the same set of beliefs? do you consider uniformity a good thing?"

Generally.  Order and stability may be boring but they're quite necessary for society to function and greater uniformity generally translates to a smoother running of society.  Think about it which run's better the engine with all it's proper parts in their proper place or the one that's made up of the scavenged parts of other engines and is held together with bubblegum and hope.

avogadro doesn't everything you say just seem wrong to you? Like... Take for example a Christians idea of heaven. Constant prayer and worship of your god plus whatever goodies we don't know about. Doesn't that seem uniform to you? Don't you think heaven will be uniform if you believe in one god?

God being known has nothing to do with forcing the human race to worship him. What gave you that idea? Shit, if you believe in Jesus then he walked around on earth and no one believed in him 'cept a few thousand at the time.

I also have a hard time with this serving God thing. If god gave us free will isn't tat an open invitation to not serve him. Even almost asking us not to serve him. Isn't that what angles are for?

Plus our servant human race is supposed to be best friends with this God as well and we are supposed to pal around with him as if he was our father. It just has stopped computing in my brain. Again, I was a hardcore Catholic. Not the 2 times a year type guy... I went on a 1 year mission trip for Catholicism. All I can say after coming out of working for the Church for 3 years is it's bullshit.

"Also, in religion, God doesn't serve us, we serve God..." -Point: Jesus dropped to his knees washing the feet of some fisherman and tax collectors... if that's not service.. I don't know what is.

"Wouldn't Christians say God have mercy and will forgive you if you right your ways and accept God?" lols Christianity seems mixed on their feelings of forgiveness. Apparently the only unforgivable sin is blaspheming the Holy Spirit, meaning you are not open to being forgiven thus you can't receive it.

If that is the case... everything is forgivable and hell serves no purpose really.

and DPS that is a good point about worship. It made me chuckle.

Anyways, my consensus is that Christianity is kinda full of big questions with empty answers. It's not really my intention to lead anyone away from their faith... more so by me typing I'm trying to figure out my own.

"Probably for the same reason such a being would desire our worship in the first place (that is of course working under the assumption that God has actually talked to a few people and told them to tell people to worship him)."

you are incorrect in what you are assuming. you are assuming not only that God has told people to tell people to worship him AND you are assuming that the reason he did so was so that he would be worshiped....  an athiest in this thread had stated that he believed religion provided a moral boost that was needed in primitive man and without this civilization wouldnt of been able to form; maybe he told humans to worship him to provide this...  there are of coarse infinite reasons why a supreme being would tell people to worship him and we have no way of knowing which it is, if he even did tell humans to worship him...