Well of course the golden rule was around long before the Bible ever was, Mrzzy! ;-) Moral concepts and other ideals pre-exist any specific book that is written about them...

And as for things being "done by gods"....well, that can be anything at all. It does not pre-suppose having to choose between 2 stark alternatives such as creationism and evolution. One can just as well suppose that evolution itself is a mechanism of natural selection created in the first place BY a god as one can suppose anything else about it. It's strictly a matter of opinion...and conjecture.

Things (theoretically) created by a god do not have to happen in one minute or seven days or with a blast of heavenly trumpets. They do not have to violate what we think of as the "natural laws". They do not have to be in the nature of what people usually call "miracles" (extremely unusual or inexplicable events). They can just as well be normal natural events happening over a period of a trillion years. It all depends on how they go about happening, doesn't it?

And it's a matter of opinion whether or not a god or gods were involved.

I understand, Mrzzy, that you are objecting to seemingly quite unscientific Bible stories like that of the Great Flood and Noah and the Ark (although that could be a greatly exaggerated tale of one man and his family who rode out a very large flood that killed everyone else in their locality, and who saved a few animals with them on a boat or raft they had built...such stories are found in other ancient cultures too...not just in the Christian Bible...and they're obviously about some other "Noah" in some other part of the world...maybe at the same time period...maybe not.).

Yes, I understand your objection to the literal beliefs of fundamentalists in unlikely tales. For sure.

But so what? It doesn't prove anything one way or another about what a hypothetical "god" may have done...since a hypothetical god can theoretically put in place things like evolution and natural selection.

I do see much evidence which suggests that some of the old religious tales are either fabrications....or parables...or metaphors...or exaggerations of natural events that occurred. I don't see any evidence that conclusively stands as proof that there is no god. It's not possible to secure such evidence unless you INSIST that the "god" you are speaking of must meet the stringent limitations of your or someone's specific definition of "god"...period. And why must that be?

Just because there are some superstitious people out there who have a primitive idea of "god"...it doesn't necessarily follow that an actual "god" has to match their primitive idea, does it?

But it would be convenient for you if it did...because then you could be all the much more certain that "there is no god!" ;-) And that's what you want. It would give you satisfaction.

Note: I'm not arguing for or against the notion that there IS a god. I don't know if there is such a being or not. I have no final opinion about it. I sort of doubt it, frankly, but I have no final opinion about it.

I do tend to believe in Spirit (that there is a spiritual reality and an afterlife for all living beings)...I just don't necessarily believe in a "theos" (meaning a separate creator-God-being who rules over it all). That seems unlikely to me. However, I'm in no position to categorically deny it...because I don't know.