Traditional representation of the Christian God.
God is the supreme being that monotheistic religions consider to be the creator of the universe . He is a deity that various religions worship and praise. The word comes from the Latin concept deus and is written with an initial capital letter when referring to the aforementioned idea of a supreme being for religions such as Christianity , Judaism and Islam , among others.
God is generally considered to be omnipresent (everywhere), omnipotent (can do everything) and omniscient (knows everything). Depending on the religion, He is given different names, such as Allah (Islam) or Yahweh (Judaism). Religions that believe in one god are monotheistic , as opposed to polytheistic .
The vision of Christianity
Christianity was the first religion to conceive of God as a kind of guardian who is outside the world , observing it from above and with whom he establishes direct communication on certain occasions. Beginning with Saint Thomas Aquinas ( 1225-1274 ), Christianity recognized that the existence of God cannot be proven by the scientific method , but is rather a task for metaphysics .
The science that deals with the study of divine entities is theology . There are various philosophical currents that discuss the existence of a god, such as deism (accepts the existence of a supreme being, but not the information supposedly revealed through scriptures or certain people, such as the Bible or the Koran), agnosticism (does not recognize the existence of a god) or atheism (denies the existence of a god or believes that it is not proven).
The fear of not believing in God
In societies where Christianity is the official religion, it is more common to find atheists than religious people. The former represent a very interesting group of people who seem afraid to make a decision that would place them once and for all on one side of the line that divides believers from non-believers, hiding behind the excuse that the time has not yet come in their lives to address this issue.
Those who believe in God often participate in the practices of a religion.
It is curious that many atheists go to great lengths to explain that religion is an invention of human beings so as not to feel alone in the most critical moments of their lives, and that on the other hand they do not rule out the possibility of believing in God in the future. Is this respectable? Of course, with such a position they do not harm anyone and, therefore, they have the right to take it. However, there seems to be a general fear of saying "I do not believe in God", probably because we do not want him to turn his back on us if one day we need to ask him for help in case of a misfortune or a terminal illness.
Atheists and believers
Of course, religious people do not always set the best example of respect for their beliefs. Every Palm Sunday, when Holy Week begins, crowds of people block the entrances to churches to get their olive branches, as if they were certificates that certify attendance at mass. However, for most of the year, these same temples see the usual two or three faithful pass by; these, in turn, are not usually great experts on the Christian religion, and even less so, good Christians .
In short, it is possible to say that atheists and religious people share the fear of not believing in a god they have never seen, who has allowed his friends and family to become seriously ill, who has allowed millions of people to die in the most terrible and unjust ways, who does not react to rape, mutilation, torture, and who exposes animals and plants to our abuses and our decisions, generally destructive to the Earth .