Atheists & Agnostics

Before Judaism, most religions taught that the creation of the Universe was either chaotic and unknowable or something like birth, an act that may not have been under much control by the being who accomplished it. Polytheistic gods were not credited with making their powers, just with having those powers and not knowing any more than we did how those powers arose. But the Hebrew god made the Universe, the way a potter makes a bowl or a carpenter a table. That implies control and knowledge, because as we all know an unskilled craftsman will make a crooked product. This made JHVH very different from any of the other gods in regular service, because he had to be infinite and perfect in order to have created such a vast and awesome universe. A woman can give birth to something that will grow much larger than she is herself, but a craftsman can only make what his skill admits. So Judaism then begat Christianity, which begat Islam, and now about half the human race is indoctrinated into this idea that the creator of the world must be infinitely powerful, skillful, and benevolent, all of which would have been considered ridiculous in any other religious system.