Argument from Conscience

[robvalue]

No evil does not mean no free will. We have billions of good choices and billions of bad choices. Remove the bad choices, and add more good choices! Remove suffering, and make it so we just have wonderfully many ways to enjoy ourself. I can imagine it, so surely God can do it. If we can only be happy by there being a possibility of being sad, that is a bad design decision. I say this every time someone brings up free will, and it just sails away into the sunset.

There is a universal, unconquerable gap between "something out there in control" and "the specific character in a story book". That's all it is, a story book, surrounded by oral myths. That is all any religious text is. If you'd never heard of Christianity and picked up this book, you'd think the God character was an evil sick bastard and you'd be glad he wasn't real.

I'm a methodological naturalist. I don't claim the natural world is all there is, I just acknowledge that it's all we can know about. I see no point in guessing about things I can't possibly test in any way.

And quite the contrary, knowing this life is all there is gives this mean ultimate meaning and purpose: it's all I have, and will ever have. Thinking it's some stupid test before the real life begins would devoid it of all meaning for me.

So yes, I'd totally agree you use religion as a way to deal with life. That of course is your decision We all find ways to cope, life is fucking hard. I cope by focusing on what little good I can do to help other people and animals while I am here, because this is their only life too.