Why did we stop inventing gods?

God is an excuse for everything we don't like - flood, famine, etc. Religion uses convoluted logic to explain why God's bad deeds are good for us.

If Alice could leave by the window, somebody else could enter by the window - so both beliefs are equally rational. The window is also evidence which is available to both of you.

No it isn't. You yourself are evidence of that. *cough* gambling *cough* The only "renewing of their minds" that believers experience is the belief that they don't need to make an effort any more, that God has given them a get-out-of-addiction-free card. That can make them more likely to relapse, not less.

Good for you. But you're making my point. Your public confession was a lot longer ago than that and your addiction didn't just go away. I can testify that Bigfoot is sitting on my couch. How much is that testimony worth? So you attribute your gambling problem to God testing you? And being fired as God testing you? What a Bastard.

So how credible is your testimony when you've been kicking your habit (presumably with God's help) for years? You're the one who brought up Job. He wasn't responsible for causing his problems but he was responsible for dealing with them. God didn't help him with that.

Do you think he expected to become rich again?

What would we think of a Potter who destroyed every pot He had ever made (thinking of the Flood here, not Job), saving only His favourite pot? Mental illness would occur to us.There's also a question of ownership. Do you defend the Potter's right to destroy His work in perpetuity? Would you like Henry Ford to come and wreck your car?

The difference is that the theory of evolution can be tested.Even if Darwin had been a fictional character and The origin of Species had been a fictional book, the theory of evolution has been thoroughly tested and confirmed.If the concept of God could be tested, there wouldn't be thousands of competing concepts.

Remember Crashfrog? His test for milk in the fridge was to look in the fridge. If you don't find any, you don't have any.So, if God is supposed to be everywhere, why can't we find Him anywhere? Then why should we believe the Christians' claims? Why not the Hindus or the pastafarians? Clearly the claims are not objective, therefore they are not evidence. Yes. Of course. Obviously.A hiding god is no different from a non-existent god.

You have to remember that it wasn't Jesus doing the marketing; it was the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke John, et al., who were marketing Jesus. The switch from Judaism to Christianity was a switch from marketing a product to marketing the salesman. The brand became more important than the product.

The OTHER other side wants a Father to rescue us from our problems but doesn't want to sit by the side of the road indefinitely waiting for Him to come and fix our flat tire.

IF "The Truth" was revealed to humanity, the rational scientific mind would be the first to accept it. True Believers from a thousand different faiths are the ones who would be blown away. Of course, there's always a slim chance that one of those thousand faiths might be right.