While in internet discussions about religion (primarily Christianity) I have often referred to God as a fictional character with a rabid fanbase. I am often accused of attacking God or even attempting to lead people away from him and I use the idea of God as a fictional character to explain to people my intention. Yahweh is, as far as we can tell, fictional. There is nothing distinguishing god's like Yahweh from the imaginary. Thus when I attack Yahweh I am actually attacking the character as he has been described to me from the Bible and by believers. I don't actually believe this character is real but I know that other people do and I feel that Yahweh is undeserving of this rabid fanbase.



We all know what fans can be like, the word itself is merely a shortened version of fanatic. There is a current internet meme going around in which trolls attack Justin Bieber on internet forums and in youtube discussions even when the discussion prior had nothing to do with Bieber. This provokes fans and defenders of the teen pop-star who irrationally defend Bieber and their taste in music. It doesn't matter how you feel about Justin Bieber, the point is that a rabid fanbase often reacts irrationally to defend what they are a fan of. I think part of it is ego, we all want to believe we've made the right choice, this applies to a great deal of things from music to what kind of car we drive to what deity we serve. Theists have a vested interest in their beliefs being correct and thus have a hard time dealing with criticisms against this God character. One might encounter similar opposition when pointing out how stupid the characters in the Twilight movie are, rabid fans would rise to defend the story and characters from criticism.



Furthermore, and perhaps most disturbing of all, is that they believe this God character is entirely real as they are defending him. Imagine if those aforementioned Twilight fans behaved in the same manor and believed Edward Bella and Jacob were all real. Is that sort of an irrational belief one that should be opposed? I would like to think so.



So not only are many religious people fans of this God character but they are also deluded enough to believe that he is real. Now don't go getting all up in arms about the use of the world deluded. I don't mean to insinuate that the religious are stupid or crazy, they've merely been lied to. Some are self-deluded, meaning they've tricked themselves and others were convinced long before they had the skepticism and critical thinking necessary to stop the intrusion of absurd religious thoughts. Those indoctrinated a young age cannot be found guilty of any true offense, as I said they've been lied to.



It seems we lived in a world where more and more people are being led into believing in something for which we have no evidence. Something that is approximately (meaning near as we can tell) imaginary and appears to be no different from the myriad of other fictional deities and demigods who all went the way of the Dodo.

