Isn't the established evidence of different Gods across different cultures show God

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doesnt exist? 1. Many different cultures believe in God/s;
2. The God/s worshipped by those cultures are irreconcilable;
3. Therefore, those different cultures do not believe in the same God/s

From this basis we can make 2 alternative conclusions:-

1. There is one true god and many false gods
2. There are only false gods

In both of these conclusions we find that humans have the capacity to create false gods. Thus, if we apply ockham's razor, the simplest solution will be the most likely. Since God/s are infinitely complex, the existence of one is more unlikely that the second conclusion. Also, since the common component in both situations is that humans are involved, we can also find that the conclusion that humans will create false gods is more likely than, sometimes people create false gods and sometimes there is a real god.

Michael,

I appreciate that anthropologists sometimes get irked by this argument, but really, we are just working from the conclusion of anthropological studies that describe the god/s studied throughout different cultures - there is no actual judgement as to the value of those gods. Rather, we are pointing out that the people in those particular cultures believe in the existence of their particular god/s as being real - even if they are imaginary, the concepts exist on the level of the described belief.
 
Also a real God would have manifested simultaneously to all nations and ethnic groups of the world in their own language with the natural urgency of spreading his message to all and giving all the same opportunity for salvation.
 
good god! what a question.
you are taking it for granted that there is in fact a 'god' at all?
man will invent a god or spirit to explain or blame everything on as part of his psyche. as we grow up we need to be bale to 'blame' things that we don't understand on something !! anything other than to admit we are clueless and frightened like children.
This started when man first became self-aware. it will never finish adn assuming for instance there was no god in fact , we would invent one to suit our needs. therefore there will always be a god of some sort for those of su suffering from this self awareness issue and fear of the unknown.
 
I am a Polytheist:
The Divine is complex and multi-faceted.

There is more than one way to appreciate life, more than one path to the Divine.
 
I think it doesn't show God doesn't exist, it shows that at least most human beings don't know anything about God.
 
I'm sorry, but at most your argument says (possibly) something about human ability to know God, but nothing whatsoever about God's existence. Beyond that, change the wording and the whole thing becomes nonsense:

There is one god who exists and many which do not.
There are only god's which do not exist.

Logically, there cannot "be" anything that doesn't exist. So a false god is a contradiction in terms. Hence my assertion that you are only referring to belief and not God Himself. As one of my teachers was so fond of saying: 'anthropology is not theology.'.

peace

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"the concepts exist on the level of the described belief".... my point exactly. The existence of many *beliefs* about God tells me nothing concrete about God's existence. People's preference for different flavors of ice cream says nothing about ice cream as a 'thing in itself'. One could, with equal validity, use the data you describe to infer that God does exist. There would be no way, logically, to tell which assertion is true. By anthropology, I didn't mean the academic/professional discipline. I meant the broader definition of anthropology as the study of man.
 
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