Reasons for God

[Edwardo Piet]

I thought I explained that faith, both in general, as a concept, and in God, enables a person to do more (e.g. suicide bombers, the saints, etc).

But what I am asking, is how is it any better if it's in God? How does that make you 'truly' care any more than if you don't have faith at all or put it in something else?

It enables those who have it to 'do more' because it doesn't require justification, they just "have faith", they trust in the unseen and the unknown (it's blind)... it's not something to be argued with (or at least, not very easily!)

I want to do more, everything else is meaninglessness, so I seek God.

Why is life meaningless to you without him?

Now I can do more, and I do.

As you said above, it depends what you put your faith in. It's better to put it in nothing and to have no faith than have it in such a particular way and strong enough that you become a suicide bomber... and why is putting it "in God" good? How does it even 'depend' IOW? How does 'having faith' in anything such as God, ever equate to something good, unless it's simply a placebo simply because you personally, subjectively, believe that you life is meaningless without him?

This is why I seek/believe in God, so that I am able to do more good.

You believe life is meaningful with God, you believe that he enables you to "do more good", right? Now this could easily be a placebo... what makes you think he actually exists and enables you to 'do more good'?

I didn't say you were incapable of caring, I said you can care with constraints - e.g. survival.

But that's what I meant, that isn't truly caring if it's only done for selfish survival reasons now is it? It's not caring unselfishly for others...not truly caring as you've said yourself. My point is that I can genuinely care just as much as someone who has genuine "faith" in "God" can.

For example, give us a random selection of your general goals in life. Be honest.

1. To always care about the truth and never waver from it, to care about honesty and to not repress things or be in denial about things, to avoid self-deception whenever I can. Ultimately to never waver from the importance of the truth to me, and how important I think it is to the world in general (delusion can be a dangerous thing), and to consider evidence an important focus.

2. To care about others a great deal, which is not so much of a goal to reach because it comes naturally, it is more of something to learn through experience and corrected the way I behave to others, and doing what I can to help whilist still looking after and being responsible for myself. I believe empathy is the crucial factor and it leads to things such as sympathy, compassion and generosity.

3. To have long lasting meaningful relationships with others, to help others and to have an overall good time on this planet, along with doing all I can do help others have a good time too.

There is, of course, more... but that's off the top of my head.

I'm not a very materialistic person.

What is it that you do that makes you think that you are good?

Well I care about people genuinely and do what I can to help. I'm not sure how I can judge myself other than by that and by how others react to me.

How do you live out how much you care about others?

I do all that I can to help, whilst at the same time trying to be responsible for myself so I am capable for caring for others, and capable of continuing to maintain my condition so I can continue to do so.

I try to treat myself and others with respect at all times. I believe that there is a difference between personal and IMpersonal matters... and so I try to respect everyone and myself, but at the same time, this does not stop me from taking issue with myself and others and my/their beliefs on an IMpersonal level.

EvF