Bill, I agree with you, the answer is NO

Simple Truths are:

1. All religions are 'man' made

2. The Christian concept and definition of a 'soul' is untenable.
Why? Nowhere in the long line of evolution was the 'soul' suddenly
inserted in a certain species at a discrete point in time.
If I assume that the soul was suddenly inserted in a living
being e.g. 1 million years ago, we must then argue that his
or her father and mother did not have a soul.
We cannot. This means:

All living beings have a soul or no living beings have a soul. As I
don't think that a worm has a soul, I must conclude that the concept
of a soul in each human can only be a manmade construct.
A manmade construct because we need to believe that we
(or at least our 'spirit' or our 'soul') will exist forever.
We deny death and complete extinction.

3. There is no heaven and hell. All religions are man made, and
the concepts of heaven and hell are man made. They were created when
social groups evolved culturally, to keep individual behavior in line
and within boundaries so as to be beneficial to the group or to its
leaders. Heaven was a carrot, hell was the stick.

4. The Christian dogma of sin, with human beings having free choice
to obey or disobey, is untenable, as 'sin', killing, fighting, etc.,
already existed millions of years before human beings came about.

That means in the long line of evolution there was never a discrete
point where the 'first' human being suddenly had free choice to obey
or disobey. That also means the dogma of Christ's death at the cross
to atone for our sins is untenable. Human beings evolved and never
(suddenly) had free choice to obey or dis-obey (=sin).

As homo sapiens evolved over millions of years, there was
never an Adam and Eve 6000 years ago. That means Eve disobeying
God and eating from the apple never happened. That means the 'fall'
in the garden of Eden never happened. That means the philosophy
of Christ having to die for our original sin, for disobeying, does not
have a foundation.

5. The Christian concept that you can only be saved through accepting
Christ as your savior is untenable. As over 5 billion on earth are
not Christians, it is illogical to assume that God automatically
condemns 5 billion (out of 6.5 billion) to hell = eternal suffering.

6. All religions are man made, which explains the huge variety of
religions. Any evolving human society evolves beliefs about life and
death, which then often evolve into absolute beliefs and then often
into structured beliefs = religion. That's why there are so
many religions, so many spin-offs of existing religions, and why so
many new spin-offs are created all the time, all over the world.

7. All religions and their spin-offs are man made, and the concept of
'God' in Christianity, Islam and Judaism is man made.

As nowhere in the material world we see physical acts/actions by
'God' on matter, there is no reason to assume that a God like the
Christian God (who controls, guards and interferes) exists.

EITHER GOD IS ABSENT, IS DEAD OR DOES NOT EXIST.

There is no God applying extra material forces on or into our physical
environment. That means all physical and chemical occurrances can
be explained (sooner or later) without having to introduce a
supernatural and 'immaterial'(!) being capable of and actively
acting on matter.

Example:
In the tsunami near Sumatra up to 100,000 innocent children
were killed in just one hour. God did not do it. Satan did not do it.
Humans did not do it. The earth core is cooling, forcing huge plates
to move, which occasionaly rupture or fracture into earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, etc., which then cause terrible natural
catastrophes such as this tsunami..
Nowhere did the 'hand of God' act anywhere.

8. The mystery of matter and the most crucial question of all
'WHY WE EXIST'
does not mean we have to assume an all powerful being like the
Christian God who controls and rules and monitors everything
(or for that matter the God of Islam and Judaism).

In the last 1000 years more and more mysteries have been explained,
and in the coming thousands of years many more mysteries will
be resolved. That means religious beliefs get pushed back more and
more, and away from the current simple absolute religious 'truths'
and beliefs as described in 'holy' books. Religions consist of a
mixture of man made legends, philosophies, myths, theories, etc.,
and are being pushed back or voided by science and
rational explanations.

That also means a religion such as Christianity can only survive if
it develops a much better explanation and rationale for the mystery
of matter and life, and for our existence. However Christianity cannot
're-engineer' itself, it cannot offer a science-based explanation of
life, or reform itself into a much more rational philosophy of life.

So it will remain an anti-scientific belief system based on fixed
explanations for life and death, made by men who lived hundreds
or even thousands of years ago.

So it will slowly die. I am not saying that the human need
for spirituality will disappear, but the dogmas and beliefs of
religions such as Christianity (and Islam and Judaism) will
become less and less acceptable to more and more people.

The core issue is a direct conflict between:

o the religious/emotional approach or persona and

o the scientific/rational approach or persona

Spirituality will stay, but dogmatic religions based on ancient
and mythical beliefs will slowly disappear or remain with smaller
and smaller groups of the uneducated or un-enlightened.

There may be temporary religious revivals and reactions but there
is no doubt in my mind that on longer terms science and associated
education will (albeit slowly) bury ancient belief systems.

That is also why so many religions, including Christianity,
in their core are so anti-science. They can never embrace a much
more rational belief system that so clearly exposes the fallacies
in their inherited belief system.
Michael M. Terra

There are dozens of major religions and hundreds of variations of beliefs
within theses religions. There are thousands of additional different god
beliefs. The top dozen are;

Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism, Jainism,
Taoism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Bahá'í

There is NO objective verifiable evidence as to the actual existence of any
of these gods. All of the beliefs are founded on the claims and opinions of
other men.