And why is that? Well, think about it. We can go on and on and on exploring religion analytically as philosophers. But the bottom line is that Gods exists because in a far more visceral and fundamentally important way they need to exist.
On this side of the grave to become Kant’s transcending font able to back up your moral obligations from the cradle to the grave. And on the other side to ensure both immortality, salvation and divine justice.
What else is there that “for all practical purposes” even comes close?
The secular objectivists might secure for you an essential moral and a political agenda. A psychological anchor. But this obligates you “as a rational human being” to share them. To become “one of us”.
But they have nothing with which to confront oblivion.
So, if one takes religion seriously why wouldn’t one take “the word of God” encompassed in one or another scripture seriously?
As for literally, the problem with this is that, as many have shown time and again, there are any number of passages in any number of scriptures that are either 1] open to a broad interpretation or 2] are completely contradictory:
atheists.org/activism/resou … adictions/
ffrf.org/legacy/books/lfif/?t=contra
It’s the modern “ecumenical” approach to God that turns a belief in Him into a kind of spiritual cafeteria. You pick and choose the behaviors that are the least burdensome. That are the least restrictive in your interactions with others.
Indeed, the behaviors that permit you to have the most “fun” before you die. But that still ensure you all the good stuff after you [as a mere mortal] are dead and gone.