[cookiemonster]

God is a construct of religion, imo. This word, Religion is derived from L. religionem (nom. religio) "respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods,"[4] "obligation, the bond between man and the gods"[5]) is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. Thus when,why and how the relationship between Man and God (s) came to be denoted by the word Religionem is also not very clear.

Religion, therefore, presupposes the concept of a god or several gods, looking upon the god/gods as something sacred (from sacren - to consecrate, to render holy), etc. God may be looked upon as a shoulder to cry on, a factotum at the beck and call of the believer, and so on. But one interesting point is that fear at the thought of the gods was termed by the Greek as deisidaimonia, (as a slave might fear a cruel and capricious master). The Romans called such fear of the gods superstitio. Thus the word superstition has inseparable linguistic links with religion. Superstition can be supposed to be regarded as "a perverse excess of religion", especially if such superstition has no rational or logical basis. In this very general sense, all religions may be regarded as glorified forms of superstition, because all religions revolve around a god or many gods, the existence or otherwise of which cannot be confirmed by logical or rational means; religions are thus systems of belief.

• Who or what is God?

God is a construct invented by early Man to explain many otherwise unexplainable things in nature experienced by him. It started with items which were unfavourable, threatening his safety and existence, and frightening also sometimes. Fierce and mighty wild animals, Thunderstorms, typhoons, tsunamis, wild fire, rains and floods, and the most enigmatic and somber - Death, may be taken as the typical examples. Overawed by each of these, the primitive Man invented a system of postulating a God or deity as the causative factor underlying each of these; in the case of the wild animals which posed an insurmountable threat to his hunter-gatherer life, he invented the Totem - an ancestral kinship with that animal and making a Totem Pole with a head resembling the particular animal, holding the Totem as sacred and thereby believing that because of this kinship-cum-reverence the particular kind of animal will not harm him or his clan/tribe.

This initial construct of God seems to have undergone changes according to the evolutionary progress made by humans in terms of their scientific and rational knowledge, way of living (hunter-gatherer to farmer to industry to modern man), education and overall civilization. It is because the God concept was specific to small groups of people in the very early stages and such concepts differed both at that time and also in their later developmental routes, that we have different religions today, some being enemy to others as well. To me this diversity of religious beliefs (gods) and the mutual ill-will and intolerance between the religions, appear as tell-tale signs of the religions being nothing more than human invention and development thereof just like dress, cuisine, etc. If religion, any one of these, were really God-given (revelation) then that religion should have become uniformly attractive and acceptable to the whole humanity, imho.

God is viewed in many ways by the different religions; there are godless religions also like Buddhism and Taoism. God is a transcendent absolute who is credited with all the tasks, functions and effects for which Man has no rational answer.
• Why we need God?
As already stated, the need for God arises when Man cannot offer any convincing logical answer to the how and why of something. This is the present position.
In addition to the above, there is a general conviction among people today that all humans are born equal, though, in reality we do not find this to be true. Yet, in line with the overriding sentiment of these times, viz., egalitarianism, the demand for “equality” is carried to such levels that any suffering, pain, handicap or disability felt by one person vis-à-vis another individual is considered to be against an egalitarian world and the concept of God and his (authoritarian) dispensation to each individual, helps satisfy the emotional needs of most people. In the Hindu religion, this inequality is attributed to Karma.

The above are my views on the subject matter of this thread. All corrections welcome.