Humblepotato, welcome to this forum.
Cappytan, your words could be exactly mine. We're absolutely on the same page on this. I also wanted to believe. But in truth, we just don't know, and the odds are so incredibly remote that the best course of action is to act as if he didn't existed, and keep a healthy, skeptical yet tolerant open mind. Works for me at least. Which, of course, doesn't mean we will suddenly start acting unethically or immorally. There's moral life beyond religious boundaries.
I would also add this question that bothered me: IF God exists, and IF he created the universe and life itself, IF he's truly that much powerful and good and wise and self-sufficient, why would he require us to worship and serve him? I'd be perfectly comfortable in loving said God as a father, and listen to his advice, but why the imposition of worship and service? Why on earth would I, as a father, require my children to worship and serve me and die for me? What kind of a moral freak would that make me? Of course, that's when the concept of organized religion comes in and you realize that all that's been taught to mankind about God and deities fits religious agendas that demand the believer's life as a sacrifice to them, not God.
Think about it.
Eden
