Is Your God a Myth?

The Inca Creation Story

One morning Pachacamac, the sun, rose from Lake Titicaca. He was so bright that nothing else could be seen in the sky, so he made the moon and the stars. Pachacamac created the first humans out of stone, but they won’t do because they sank too easily, they also knew nothing. The moon and the sun had children, they tried to help the pitiful humans. The sun and the moon had a son and a daughter. They sent them to the earth to help the people. The sun taught men how to build, plow, and plant. The daughter taught the women how to weave and prepare food. The son of the sun god became the first Inca.

After a long time on Earth, Manco Capac, the husband, and Mama Occlo, the wife, traveled the world looking for a good area for a new settlement. They put one of Pachacamac’s golden rods into the ground every time they found a good place to settle. In Huanacauri, the rod they placed sank below the Earth. Manco Capac decided that they should settle there and put the first sun temple there too. Manco Capac and Mama Occlo split up to get together a group of people to settle with them. Manco Capac went north and Mama Occlo went south. The descendants of Pachacamac were supportive of and loving to their father. Many people joined and followed them. In Huanacauri the followers of Inca's wife made a city in the south called Hurin-Cuzco, while Inca's followers chose to build Hanan-Cuzco in the north of the valley. Since then, Inca cities are always divided between north, south, male, and female.

Inca Creation Myth

Is The Inca God a Myth?

Thousands of human beings living in South America believed this story at one time. They lived their lives around these beliefs and trusted these gods to help them every day. They thought these gods existed and would have died for these beliefs. If good things happened, they attributed these things to the Gods being pleased, and if bad things happened, they had displeased the Gods. But why did they believe in these Gods? Did they see these gods appear before them? Did they have some kind of test that told them they were real? Are the Inca gods actually real and just don't appear to anyone anymore? Did these gods "die"?

Of course not. They didn't exist, everyone would agree with that now. The question is why did the Inca keep believing in these gods? If we agree they didn't exist, then the Inca never got any help from these Gods, never saw them, never heard a message from them. But yet they still believed in them till their last breath. Why? Because that's what they were taught from cradle to grave, and they didn't have a way to break away from these teachings. If the gods never existed, then humans made up the story from their imaginations. Once the religion started, the parents taught their children the same stories they were told, they grew up and taught their children, and so on. A made-up story, with no basis in reality, was enough to cause generations of people to follow it without question. They believed this way because that is how they were taught to believe, and because they were missing a very important thinking tool.

If you had grown up in their civilization, you would believe exactly the same way they did. If you are a Christian, you would not believe in Jesus, you would believe as the Inca did, in Pachacamac, and would die for that belief. The same goes if you are now Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or any other religion. If you grew up in the Inca society, you would believe as they did. The same thing applies today. If you are a Christian, and had been born into a Muslim society, you would believe as a Muslim does, no questions asked, and would most probably die for your belief. You believe the way you do because that is what you are taught to believe by others, and you are taught not to question these beliefs, or you will end up in unpleasant places as punishment for this questioning and disbelief.

Rational Thinking

What is the tool we have available to us now, that they didn't have back in the Inca's day? Critical and rational thinking. Examples of these types of thinking as opposed to non-critical thinking are - 

Logical vs. Illogical

Skeptical vs. Authoritarian

Realistic vs. Idealistic

Comprehensible vs. Mystical

Analytical vs. Ordinary

Testable vs. Untestable

A person thinking rationally is taught to question things people tell them. Rational thinking is very different than religious thinking. Religious thinking and teaching is emotional, unquestioning, authoritarian, dogmatic, mystical, and threatening. These properties of religious thinking block a person's mind from clearly judging what is acceptable to believe as true based on actual evidence, it teaches that invisible entities and magical  abilities exist that no person can independently verify or reproduce.

Is Your God a Myth?

Fortunately, you can break free of religious thinking if you learn to think critically and rationally. You already know how. You can start by thinking about why you realize the Inca gods are imaginary. There is simply no evidence to support this claim. You realize this is true, and have no problem thinking rationally about the Inca gods. This indicates you can think rationally about other gods. You can see, using this thinking process, why all the other gods that have existed are imaginary. There is no evidence for them, and because there is no evidence, you do not worship them. This is logical and rational, but the important and difficult part is turning that thinking to your own religious teachings (under threat of eternal punishment). Why does your god, which other religions see as imaginary, appear real to you? It is because you were taught to think that way, without any rational reason to do so, and were taught that thinking about it logically and rationally is actually a bad thing. If every religion believes it is worshipping the real god, then are they all correct, are all the Gods real, or are none correct, none are real? If Pachacamac is imaginary, might God, Allah, or Yahweh also be imaginary?

If you want to discuss rational and critical thinking vs. religious and irrational thinking, and why it is rational to think that no gods exist, we invite you to join our forums and talk with us.