Dave O, none of these gods really existed. They were myths. Well, OK myths exist but
they are not reality-based or scientifically verifiable. They were stories, parables, metaphors but not physical entities. Of course what I meant is that these myths are unsupportable by science as being real entities as in flesh and blood or physical properties.

Myths do serve a function in society as Joseph Campbell has pointed out. But they are not physically real entities and as a result function as ideas, metaphors, instructions, parables etc.

I also understand Campbell when he says that society needs "our myths". I can go along with the need for some of them.

Religion per se has come to mean an institutional body that supports churches, synagogues, mosques etc. I personally see no difference between any of the major religions and the "cults" that are often mentioned.

There is a cultural aspect to religion and this may be separate from actual belief in any religion.

Atheism mean no belief in a god. That's all it means in spite of some attempts to define it as a fundamentalist belief system. There is no belief system at all in atheism.
Agnosticism is an attempt to not come to grips with the issue.

There is a growing branch of what I would call Anti-theism which characterizes the criticism by Christopher Hitchens. I think Anti-theism is not supportable by the nature of the US Constitution which allows flat-earth societies and moon-made-of-green-cheese cults. Anti-theism goes aggressively after religion and arises from it's dictates which attempts to make non-believers "wrong". Atheism in my opinion is consistent with the First Amendment.

It's fine for me if people want to have a personal belief in whatever as long as 1. They don't insist on cramming it down other's throats and 2. It's their personal thing like their sex lives. Personally, I am not interested in other people's religion or their sex lives unless it enters the realm of scientific or historical study.

I don't care to capitalize on od by capitalizing the word. I prefer the generic lower-case god to describe all of the myths pervaded by a religious populous.

Frank