However, I am not trying to argue that humanism is right but that religion is a fabrication. .
Well, since Christ, there is but one particular form of religion of God's making and that's Christianity...All of the other religions are indeed fabrications---man-made fabrications.
Human relationships and the laws and rules of society can be constructed without the need for a supernatural being,
Spoken like a secular/atheistic Humanist. Sure they can if the goal is for society to descend into total chaos.
No need for Almighty God equals no need for God's authority and standards of what is right and wrong.
I will state again, I do not believe in God or religion. You make a throwaway comment that I must be a fool not to prepare for eternity with God.
I'll take the time to re-iterate...but this time speak in general. Many people spend their lives in vain pursuit of riches, honors, power, pleasures, and knowledge of this or that earthly topic. But these never satisfy the heart and besides these must be left behind when the hour of death comes. Our salvation is much more important than any of these things for they will be profitless if we do not save our soul. "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul?" Just something to think about.
I will state again, I do not believe in God or religion. You make a throwaway comment that I must be a fool not to prepare for eternity with God. I ask you, how do you know (i) that God exists? (ii) that you know what he is thinking? (iii) that he is in fact a 'he' at all? (iv) if my unbelief has no bearing on his existence why will he not leave me alone?
We know by our reason that God exists, because of:
The existence of the world which could not have come into existence by itself. Everything in the world had a beginning--mankind, plants, animals, planets, stars --all had a beginning. They could not have come into existence by themselves. They must have been made by Someone who had no beginning. Man, planets, etc. could no more have made themselves than a watch can make itself.
The order and harmony of the universe leads us to infer the existence of a Supreme Architect and Preserver of all surpassing skill. The heavenly bodies go along their appointed courses age after age. The Seasons succeed one another year after year. There is splendor, beauty, arrangement and order everywhere. The whole universe is governed and preserved by IMMUTABLE LAW. To say that this universal order is the result of evolutionary chance is as foolish as to say that automobiles go sensibly around by themselves.
The testimony of our conscience distinguishes right from wrong. Thus within ourselves there is a recognition of a Supreme Lawgiver to whom we are responsible, who will reward the good and punish the evil that we do. Those who persist in denying the existence of God in spite of external and internal testimony are atheists. Of them Our Lord said, "Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, neither do they understand...." St.Matt. 13:13-15.
In creating us God gave us the power and right to choose which path we will follow in life..either the path of obedience or the path of disobedience to His commandments. Each must choose for himself his own destiny.
That's where God's religion comes in...
Man's high destiny is to go to God because man comes from God and belongs entirely to God. Our reason tells us that Someone made us. That Someone is God. Nothing can proceed from nothing. If there had ever been a moment when nothing existed, nothing would ever have existed. Therefore, because we exist, we know Someone who made us also exists. That Someone is God.
God has told mankind very clearly why He created man, what is the destiny of man, and what man must do in order to attain that destiny. He gave us His laws and sent the Prophets to teach men His will; after that, He sent His own Divine Son Jesus Christ, and Christ sent His Church to teach all men until the end of the world.
The end of man, as is all Creation, is the glory of God. Man was created chiefly for life beyond the grave. This present life is merely a preparation for the eternal life. This is a great mystery but there God wants to share with us His own unmeasured bliss.
So we belong to God and since we are His creatures, we have certain duties towards God which we must fulfill. His Religion (which is the virtue by which we give to God the honor, gratitude, obedience and worship due to Him alone as our Master, Creator and Lord and in the way prescribed by Him) teaches us these duties.
So, our chief business in life, the business which God commands us to attend to, is to go to God. And this depends on our practice of the Christian Religion.
Our reason tells us that God must have made us for some purpose...to know, love and serve Him in this world, and to be with happy with Him in the next.
It is by the Christian Religion that we fulfill the purpose for which we were created. By believing what God has revealed, we know God. By knowing God, we cannot help but love Him, and by practicing what we learn and by obeying God's commands, we serve Him. "He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me."