dhw: If a man relates positively and kindly to other humans (I would add "and enjoys life to the full while doing so"), but fails to acknowledge God, my own "framework of religious engagement" suggests this proves we don't need God to create a balanced, ethical and enjoyable way of life. If non-acknowledgement doesn't bother God, why should we worry, but if it does, and "a good human being" is therefore regarded as unbalanced, one can only conclude that God needs us more than we need him!-God's attribute or appearance of insecurities, the way I gathered it thru the scriptures, is one (but not the only one) very big reason I began to expand possibilities beyond what I found in what I had been taught and thru my own research into the scriptures. Looking beyond what I've been taught and researched myself, I've not found this insecure God or any being with personality or attributes of any kind, or even one creative being, beyond the whole of What Is. But, the malleable fabric of What Is, itself, can seem to bring to those who seek a God of attributes and personality, the very thing they seek for. That is what we are dealing with here within the fabric of what is. It is so malleable, that humans, because of their own creative ability to create within the conscious field of ideas, thoughts and visions, especially when believed exponentially by many, can create the very thing they believe. -> 
> That no one is required to believe in God is obvious. Religion's threat that punishment awaits those who do not believe is infantile stupidity. -But, within the malleable fabric of what is, the potential to create one's own punishment (from belief) when they leave from one life to the next or maybe even in the afterlife, is a possibility.-If there is an afterlife, one can surely enter without belief, and will be surprised. My issue is at a different level. I am looking for a cause for the creation we live in, and I put it that way because I must accept the existence of a first cause. I must point out that religions accept a first cause and then mistakingly apply all sorts of anthropomorphic qualities to that cause. How do they know what they claim? They conjure up divine revelation.-But there remains a possibility, whether slight or huge, that religions did receive divine revelation from more intelligent beings than themselves. Whether from another dimension, planet, or from this planet and hidden, that possibility remains. Evidence that's been handed down with many indigenous peoples stories, writings, even pictographics on caves, etc., says to me, to keep my mind open to the possibility. Yes, some religions, Christians especially, have used and abused this information for their own cause in times past. But hopefully we, as a whole species, are in the midst of evolving into a more open minded way of looking at the revelations/books/stories handed down to us from our forefathers.