This document discusses the idea that the concept of God and religious beliefs manifested over time through human imagination and efforts by intellectuals to create stable societies. While religious beliefs provided people with purpose and moral guidance, they are ultimately human creations without proof or evidence. However, the idea of God or a higher power allows people to find mental peace and reassurance, which helps societies function economically through cooperation and social organization. So although the existence of God cannot be proven, the concept has persisted throughout history due to its benefits in helping humans live purposeful and cooperative lives.

1. Running head: THE IDEOLOGY OF GOD MANIFESTED THROUGHOUT TIME BY HUMANKIND 1
The Ideology of Heaven and Hell or Even God Himself is Just an Idea That
Manifested over the Centuries by The Humankind
Masuda Akter Tonima
BRAC University

2. THE IDEOLOGY OF GOD MANIFESTED THROUGHOUT TIME BY HUMANKIND
Abstract
In today’s world each and every person has a religion, and if they do not,
then they call themselves atheists. However they all have a set of beliefs
which help categorizing them. Regardless of what group one belongs to, their
lives are being affected by their beliefs.
Since beginning of time; history tells us that human beings believed in
deities and worshipped the deities for betterment of life. Even though there
were no basic grounds behind them, they seemed to have evolved over time,
and history shows us how these beliefs have been used to reconstruct society.
Not only did they affect lives of individuals but nations over.
This leads us to the fact that essentially beliefs should be one’s personal
matter. However, since it does affect people’s personal lives, the logica l
solution for this is to not believe in such irrational things at all. Religious
extremist might argue otherwise. This brings us to the question of whether a
person should believe in something like a flying spaghetti monster just
because none can prove its non existence or trust their senses and knowledge.
This essay therefore aims to discuss whether a person should believe in
something that they cannot rationally explain or trust according to their
senses and knowledge.

3. THE IDEOLOGY OF GOD MANIFESTED THROUGHOUT TIME BY HUMANKIND
Introduction
Why do people believe in something they have no proof of? Why is it they
tend to depend? What could be a possible explanation of all the variation in
religions? People living in the same world have different beliefs. There could
be existence of various reasons behind this. However, one of the most logical
reasons, though very debatable, is self assurance. People create the
phenomenon of someone or something looking out for them for mental peace,
social organization and even though not very focused, there is a wider fact or
being affected i.e. the economy.
Research Questions
 Why do human beings tend to believe that existence if anything is
caused by some supernatural power, god?
 Does the ideology of heaven or hell give people an ideal goal of life,
like only the idea of exam makes an average student study? Or is it just
another trick by the intellectuals of different eras throughout centuries
to create a better society, or is it just the fear of being alone in this
universe that manifested this idea?
 Is it possible for a single idea such as this to affect something big such
as the world’s economy?
Hypothesis
 Human beings like to depend and hence the idea of god and his justice
system manifested throughout time for serenity and stable society.
 In most cases it does give people a goal in life and helps them stay in
track. However this idea did not just occur to people’s mind,
intellectuals of the past created this idea for the better management of
the society.
 When a million people think alike, it does affect the society and
eventually the economy.
Research Background

4. THE IDEOLOGY OF GOD MANIFESTED THROUGHOUT TIME BY HUMANKIND
 Drange (1998) discussed about the beliefs of methodological atheists
and compared the lack of proof of existence of Santa Claus or unicorns
to God’s. This idea is completely rational and hence called rational
methodology, i.e. denying the existence of something until found
evidence to prove it.
 Thus taking rational methodology into consideration, I am going to
use this logic in my paper to say that God does not exist, and since
there is no proof of his existence, the idea is to obviously have
manifested from human imagination.
 Kurtz (n.d) talked about Neo-humanists and secular humanists is his
article ‘Neo-humanism’, who either care not about traditional
definition of god or thinks that religion obfuscates and complicates
matters and compares and relates it with roman catholic ideology which
actually have had history of child abuse cases with thousands of
individuals
 I would like to use this in my paper as a reference to how this kind
of ideas affect the society more negatively than positively
 Hoover (n.d) argues in his article ‘argument for the existence of God’
about the existence of a creator. He states his point by the affirmation
of the existence of a watchmaker by the existence of a watch analogous
to the existence of the creator of the universe as it does exist. However
he also contradicts his idea by asking the question of the creator of god
if someone must create something. And hence comes to the conclusion
of dilemma where the creation of the cosmos could be either planned or
simply accident.
 I would further go into details about this in my paper.
 Most religions are based on faith and not reasoning. The ideology of
god means the most intelligent, wise, good, moral and just, rises from
one’s own idea which reflects one’s own crucial idea of the best of
anything. Human beings are ignorant, and lack of information causes us
to imagine something which in reality reflect our own ideology (Hume,
1737)

5. THE IDEOLOGY OF GOD MANIFESTED THROUGHOUT TIME BY HUMANKIND
 Using this quote of Hume, I would explain in my paper that how
self recreation image of god exist.
 Riaz (2003) states the history of Bangladesh initially emerging as
secular-socialistic country has been affected by the religion of the
majority. He states the irony of how the leading party used ‘Inshallah’
in a public speech and how the party in power had alliance of two
Islamist parties.
 Using these facts I would like to state in my paper how religion
plays role in society and politics of a country, which eventually
affects the economy, hardly in a positive manner.
 Buddhism is just a way of life that helps in improvement of one’s own
state. It denies any belief of any kind of God, absolute moral and
heaven or hell only emphasizes on teachings, truth and light. However
most Buddhists believes that there are many ways to god and Buddhism
is the path towards god, and hence deprive themselves from many
pleasures for the sake of the path to god (“Basics of Buddhism” n. d).
 Even a peaceful way of life, not religion, can be deform ed into such
baloney. I would use this example as a fact of how religion affects
one’s moral and social values.
Research Methodology (Argumentative essay)
God created people with a dependence on knowing so that they would make
the effort to learn about creation, just like rules are set for us to follow, we
make an effort to follow them, and success brings us happiness and thereby
we reach a state of satisfaction and peace. People are curious and hence they
look for evidences relating to nearly everything. Throughout history it has
been seen that people believed in god and heaven regardless of what society
or what era they belonged to. It gave them a way of life and helped them stay
in track. Thus gaining conscience and teaching them moral values.
Countless times in the history of mankind we have seen that during the worst
times of human rule it is religion that restores natural balance and brings
peace. Starting from prophet Ibrahim to Prophet Muhammad in Islam, Jesus
in Christianity and even Moses in Judaism, they all had to go through a

6. THE IDEOLOGY OF GOD MANIFESTED THROUGHOUT TIME BY HUMANKIND
process of purifying the society which lead to an era of just and peace in the
most violent of places of the world. Even Noah had to help people start
everything from the scratch when devastation was brought at its worst on this
earth by the very people. Even though it is man who always brings
devastation, god always gives a path, which they must follow in order to gain
moral salvation and which helps regain natural balance and restores social
peace.
Throughout history it can be seen how countries thrived, the people lived
happy and peaceful lives, under various religious rules. United Kingdom,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and many other countries developed economically.
The religious point of view guides people in all aspects. The Sharia law can
be taken as an example, which guides people starting from daily routines to
even trade. The law even guides people through specific crimes and is
respective punishments which ensure proper justice. Therefore a state
governed in accordance to a religion can ensure proper justice, social peace
which eventually leads to fair trade and better development of the economy.
However in these times, political theorists would say, it is not applicable and
for a state to develop it must follow a proper theory of secularism, which
demands separation of religion from politics. The combination of politics and
religion directly results in chaos. Instances such as the Islamic Oikko Jot‘s
reaction of the anti fatwa verdict and the situation during the 2001
parliamentary elections are mere examples, which lead to simple str ikes
resulting into slowing the manufacturing process. Globalization causes time
to be money, the slower the process, the lower its value is. Thus negatively
affecting the international trade, this results in lower revenue of foreign
currency. Additional negative factors include risking reputation of the
country, fall in currency rate and fall in foreign investment. This overall ends
up lowering the balance of payment, and hence resulting in barricading the
economic development process of a country.
In a third world country like ours where just underdevelopment is under
process, let alone development itself, simple matters such as religion hold
back the mental growth of average people. People of the same ethnic group,

7. THE IDEOLOGY OF GOD MANIFESTED THROUGHOUT TIME BY HUMANKIND
belonging from the same ethnic culture at best ignore each other on the basis
of religion. Terms such as cast and race originated due to the difference in
religion. Even people from the same religion hate each other and impose
cruel judgment on people on religious grounds.
Some or rather most people are offended when there is any question raised
about the existence of god; however they fail to acknowledge the definition.
Drange (1998), explained in his article ’Atheism, Agnosticism,
Noncognitivism’, there are various definition of the word ‘God’. He referred
to love or the universe itself as God1, A powerful being who created the
universe as God2, the ideology of God in Christianity as God3, and according
to him god4 has no definition. Now there is no doubt about the existence of
God1, God2 and God3 is what human beings create to acquire mental peace
because it gives them the hope and an illusion of supernatural judge looking
out for them even though there is no specific evidence to prove, and lastly
God4 as Drange (1998) explained is something that has no argument to or
against it, it is an ideology agnostics believe in, when the proper definition
arrives, they will or will not choose to believe.
Discussion
My preconceived idea was this that, the idea of God is an illusion; which
manifested in peoples mind throughout time. This idea is debatable. Some
people might say that this statement is wrong in itself, and some might agree
with it but for different reasons, and derive a new answer to the great
question. The difference in the opinions is what makes this an issue. In
accordance to my previous hypothesis; human beings like to depend and
hence the idea of god and his justice system manifested throughout time for
serenity and stable society. Which I thought was not needed in the society.
However, after reading my research articles I have found that many other
people have argued about the same issue and even though my preconceived
notion remains unchanged, the fact that religion even as a way of life is

8. THE IDEOLOGY OF GOD MANIFESTED THROUGHOUT TIME BY HUMANKIND
needed in the society is incontrovertible. Due to the researches made by the
intellectuals of many eras and the logic they put up it has also led me to
believe that this is needed for the homo-sapiens to exist peacefully. The apex
of this research is that the ideology of God is a human creation, despite the
factor that human beings need this idea due to their destructive nature in
order to remain in a society; the apex still remains and makes the argument
stronger.
Conclusion
For economic development which comes from trade and social organization,
which is affected by each individual’s mental status; people choose to believe
in a higher power. This is obviously due to the nature of human beings
tending to depend. The basic idea of God comes from one’s own ideology of
limitless intelligence, wisdom, goodness and power which gives them no
argument against (Hume, 1737). Hume (1737) also states that people are
ignorant; since we have no idea of ‘The supreme power’ we tend to make up
the ideas which reflect our own personalities; completely ignoring the
possibility that those could be our own creation, which too is due to
ignorance. And it is this very ignorance that helps people gain the mental
peace that they tend to acquire in order to live a healthy and happy life. E ven
an agnostic like me believes in a God but the definition is what matters. Even
if it is an illusion, as Tolstoy (1879) said, life is god. Therefore regardless of
the definition, this idea helps achieving Nirvana, as Buddhists believe the
ultimate vacuum.

9. THE IDEOLOGY OF GOD MANIFESTED THROUGHOUT TIME BY HUMANKIND
References
 Basics of Buddhism. (n. d). retrieved from
http://www.letusreason.org/Buddh1.htm
 Drange. T.M. (1998). Atheism, Agnosticism, Noncognitivism.
Retrieved from
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theodore_drange/definition.htm
l
 Hume, D. (1737)., & Tolstoy, L.(1879). Retrieved from
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Religions-Atheist-Atheism-
Agnostic.htm
 Hoover, A.J. (n.d). Arguments for existence of God. Retrieved from
http://mb-soft.com/believe/text/argument.htm
 Kurtz, P. (n.d). Neo-Humanism. Retrieved from
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=kurt
z_27_6
 Riaz, A. (2003). God willing: the politics and ideology of Islamism in
Bangladesh.