Why believe in invisible gods?

When people say, "I believe in God" or "I believe in a power higher than myself," the first thing that comes to mind is: Why? Why do people--people in the Twenty-first century, mind you--still persist in believing in invisible, anthropomorphic beings that evolved from primitive minds grappling with natural phenomena tens of thousands of years ago?

Why do people believe, many of them with such fervor, that they are willing to kill or die in the name of invisible beings like Allah and Jehovah? Why are people more willing to believe that either one of these invisible beings is capable of creating life rather than believe that life evolved naturally as a consequence of some mundane causation? Have those who profess a belief in these beings really examined their beliefs objectively, instead of subjectively?

I doubt it. I seriously doubt that the great majority of those who are willing to blow themselves up in the name of Allah, or encourage others to do so, really believe that their God created all human beings equally. Neither do all Christians believe that their God created a world where disease-ridden black Africans can share equal space with well-scrubbed Europeans.

Is it any wonder, then, why it is not only a prerequisite to have a belief in a God, but also to profess a belief in the rituals or "holy" words passed down from generation to generation before one can receive the reward of Paradise? It begs the question: Do modern-day believers care more about time-honored traditions than they do about what these invisible gods really stood for in their heydays? Do Jews and Christians, for example, really believe that a white Jehovah spoke solely to a white Moses and commanded him to lead 40,000 white Israelites out of a land peopled by millions of white Egyptians?

If they do believe that myth, then why do they think their God went through all of the trouble to create Africans, Chinese, Japanese, and other people? What did the latter groups do that was so evil, so wrong, that they were ignored by history, by the "Holy" men who created the Torah, the Qur'an, and the Bible? Why are most, if not all, of the saints white and speak European languages? For that matter, why do most of the people who are favored by Allah are Arabic or speak the Arabic language?

Why don't white people and Arabs practice African religions? Why is it important for Christians and Muslims to dominate the earth in the name of their gods? Why don't many of the holier-than-thou people who profess a belief in Allah or Jehovah practice what they preach, like respect and tolerance for those who are different from them?

I'll tell you why: Because for those who believe in traditional, invisible Middle Eastern "Gods" and who also want to control the lives of others, it has always been about power -- power to control others, using their so-called holy books, which are nothing more than rationales for slaughtering and enslavement. Nothing else matters to these charlatans, these professors of gods Almighty.

When Akhenaten, in his "Hymn to the Aten," first articulated and praised the natural, unnamed force of nature that created all things, he in effect created the prototypical God. His imitators either misunderstood or deliberately destroyed the concept, creating instead jealous, narcissitic gods demanding obedience and sacrifices. Where the Atenist's works were tangible and inclusive of all mankind, the imitators' gods were dark and mysterious and divided mankind into believers and non-believers, the chosen few and the hated infidels. And mankind has suffered ever since.