It's time to stop pretending God exists!

[pocaracas]

It's like asking Calvin to stop pretending the Hobbes is a real tiger.
It's like asking a kid that gets candy from the tooth fairy to stop pretending it's real.
Face reality and stop pretending your childhood imaginary friend is really talking to you.

[Cinjin]

The way Atheists talk to the Theists here give me the impression, they believe we are be dishonest to reality and don't want to face reality. That tells me that we are pretending God exists, that we know we have no reason to believe he exists but still insist on it, because it makes us happier as opposed to truly sincerely believing it to be true.

WHAT?!

Look man, believe whatever you want, but putting that argument in the mouths of atheists isn't remotely fair.
Furthermore, this idea that belief in God offers me happiness is absurd. I have deistic beliefs and I don't maintain them because I glean some sort of happiness from them. To be clear, I don't get one tiny ounce of happiness from my own belief structures. In fact, I'd say that I'd be a lot god damn happier if I never ever thought about this horse shit again. If I could shut the existential crap off in my mind - believe me, I would.

[Mystic]

They always mention how we don't want to face reality and stuff. Or that we believe because it makes us happier as opposed to really thinking it's true and believing due to that.

[Jackalope]

They always mention how we don't want to face reality and stuff. Or that we believe because it makes us happier as opposed to really thinking it's true and believing due to that.

Do we "always" do that? I personally can't recall doing so any time recently - and it would indeed be strange for me to do so since it's not representative of what I think.

You'rr overgeneralizing here I think.

[Silver]

I must be a we now.

[Mystic]

They always mention how we don't want to face reality and stuff. Or that we believe because it makes us happier as opposed to really thinking it's true and believing due to that.

Do we "always" do that? I personally can't recall doing so any time recently - and it would indeed be strange for me to do so since it's not representative of what I think.

You'rr overgeneralizing here I think.

I think you're right I'm over generalizing. One thing that didn't help was that I don't recall that anyone would say the opposite when it was stated.

[One Above All]

Who's pretending, aside from theists?

[Simon Moon]

Because we are all playing pretend.

Right?

Not so much pretending, but believing for bad reasons.

The vast majority of theists apply rational thinking to most supernatural and un-evidenced claims, just as atheists do.

Theists are probably just as likely to dismiss claims of ufo abductions, Bigfoot, Loch Ness monster, etc, etc as atheists are. And usually for he correct reasoned; lack of demonstrable evidence and reasoned argument.

Yet they don't apply the same level of critical thinking to their own pet god beliefs. They have to come up with all sorts of mental gymnastics on why they believe.

---

They always mention how we don't want to face reality and stuff. Or that we believe because it makes us happier as opposed to really thinking it's true and believing due to that.

There's a great book call "50 Reasons People Give for Believing in A God". And none of them are rational. Believing because it makes believers feel comfortable is only one of them.


On a side note, you are not a deist.

[LastPoet]

You should try to find help in other avenues, other ones besides religion.

[rexbeccarox]

They always mention how we don't want to face reality and stuff. Or that we believe because it makes us happier as opposed to really thinking it's true and believing due to that.

A couple of years ago, I was visiting my mom in Upstate NY, and checking my email. Someone had forwarded me a funny image of Ray Comfort and a banana, and I sat there laughing. My mom asked me about it, and I explained. We ended up having a small argument about it (another story for another day), and the argument ended with me asking, "ok, mom. Tell me something: do you believe in a god because you actually think it exists, or because it makes you happy to think it does?"

She admitted it's because it makes her uncomfortable to think otherwise. So yeah, there are people who "believe" because it makes them happier to do so.