Taking in viewpoints from sociology, neurobiology, evolutionary biology, psychology and social psychology and most of all from history can give valuable added insight what really is the concept of ‘god’.
The modern idea of a monotheistic ‘god’ is basically just a social construct that has originally been developed as a social tool. It was created to give new credence to certain early human ideas and ideologies that were favored by the leaders of the then current societies.
Out of these simple beginnings this idea of a monotheistic ‘god’ has acquired a life of its own. Now we have people who really and honestly think that a concept of ‘god’ could somehow exist independent of ideas and ideologies, and in the human mind there could be innate ‘need’ to have it.
The monotheistic ideas of ‘god’ have been transmitted during the last two millennia to countless new cultures. The spread of this idea has already often changed the very different ideas on deities that have been dominant in other cultures.
People who were brought up in monotheistic cultures were also in the lookout for similarities in the new cultures that they did encounter. They have simply dug out similarities in ideas that have very little in common with their own ideas concerning the idea of ‘god’.
These two factors have aided in creating the widespread illusion that there would exist a single idea of ‘god’ that would be universal to all cultures. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. For example, the Chinese old ‘religions’ of Confucianism and Taoism do not have any kind of similar idea of ‘god’ that many western religions do have.
Also when one looks into very many animistic mythologies one needs to stretch ones imagination to the utmost to see any kind of semblance of similarity with, for example, Christian ideas of a 'god’. A very sizable part of humanity has always lived in cultures that do not have any ideas that would even resemble the ideas of the recent monotheistic religions.
A striking evidence of this is how the ideas of 'god' or 'gods' are missing from the mythologies of the Aborigines of Australia, who have lived in complete isolation from the cultures into which this quite modern idea of 'god' has spread from other cultures. There simply has never existed any kind of single universal human concept of ‘god’.
An idea like ‘god’ can survive in the long run if there are people who do benefit from its survival socially, politically and economically. The spread of the new idea of monotheistic ‘god’ did benefit even enormously all parts of the early ruling elites. Presenting their favorite ideas and social structures as having a supernatural and unchangeable origin was a staggeringly good method for safeguarding them form any kind of critical inspection. These ideas have benefited even enormously the ruling elites of all monotheistic societies for two millennia.
The ruling elites have always had political and economical motivations to create and support these new belief-systems that were based on new kinds of monotheistic claims. At very first, they did also give a much needed support the ideas of growing inequality in the first agricultural societies, when it was simply described as a god-given situation.
It is no wonder that these ideas did spread like wildfire from culture to culture, as every sane member of the ruling elite could see the immediate benefits they could reap from creating a similar god-based belief-system of their own to suit their local needs.
The various pantheistic ideas of unity of life and its relatives have quite different origins, however, but I will concentrate on the modern idea of monotheistic, personal ‘god’ here.
The most important factor for survivability of an idea like this is the creation of a paid full-time class of employees to support the survival of the idea. This requirement was soon amply fulfilled with the creation of various kinds of religious organizations with full-time employees. Of course, there need to be also string psychological need in humans that did make it easy to accept these new monotheistic ideas. We crave for explanation for the unexplainable, and these monotheistic religions have always offered these.
Religions also do offer soothing (even if false) comfort in the face of death. Most of all modern do offer the sense of community and belonging, even if it happens with the price of letting others tell you what are your limits for your own reasoning. Religions do also work as tools for maintaining social coherence in a societ. However, this role does not, in fact, need any kind of supernatural basis.
In the end, the idea of ‘god" has had so massive backing from the ruling elites throughout the last two millennium that the fact that any competing ideas still can exist is a miracle in itself. The success of modern secularism in society after society does already show that the basic structure of the human mind does not have any kind of inner need for this idea of a monotheistic ‘god’, as so many religious people are so fond to claim.
The immense success of the concept of monotheistic 'god' does really just show how an idea can spread like a wildfire from culture to culture, if it just really can benefit the ruling elites and also give comfort those who are below them.
