(TheThinkingAtheist)
Atheists often hear the question, "How can you be moral without God?" The real question is, "How can a moral person accept God?" If Judeo-Christian scriptures are true, "God" is a terrible example of morality or basic goodness.
Of course, this behavior makes more sense when those scriptures are read more carefully and not limited to Christian and Jewish traditions: "God" is always plural and referring to entities from space claiming dominion, or claiming to have "created" (genetically manipulated) the human race and animals, terra-forming the Earth, making the stars, keeping the Sun alight...
Ancient Indus River Valley Civilization information (now embodied in Hinduism's Vedas), Sumerian and Egyptian texts, and channeled communications all point to many visitors over many aeons. Buddhism inherited ancient "Indian" and Central Asian (Near Eastern) traditions, and the same themes are present often with more detail.
Recovered Nag Hammadi Library (Gnostic Gospels) and Dead Sea Scroll texts, however, means one need not go too far afield to begin to understand that the world has been misled about the meaning of "God." And each theistic tradition simply claims, not the physical actors who reveal themselves on Earth in "chariots of fire" from time to time, but the ONE, godhead, non-duality, oneness, Brahman, unity, matrix, the enduring reality behind the illusion of the universe.
Why would one nation impose its imperial will while claiming to be helping and serving a biblical character? Probably because its population buys this story war after war.
We can safely say that that ONE is not doing all of this killing, warring, razing, raping, boasting, and acting all enraged all the time. Let us follow our hearts and keep our heads. We are responsible for ourselves -- everyone, even "God" -- so it is best to tune in rather than drop out. Our karma, choices, pernicious beliefs, and efforts are our own. We can share them with others, but their karma, choices, beliefs, and efforts are their own.
While we can certainly help each other, no one can save another. Famous spiritual teachers made great efforts to help, not to do everything for us. We are responsible for our greed/bias, hate/fear, and delusion/wrong views; we will bear the results of actions motivated by them.
It is our job to love, to be just, to be peaceful, to be kind, and help one another. Whatever tradition it pleases one to adopt, the bottom line is asking, Is this helping? Living in a religiously oppressive society can make atheism, "science," Satanism (whatever we may conceive of as the Dark Side), or even materialism/hedonism seem like a very attractive option. And it leads us to co-create the world we personally live in.
