(November 14, 2009 at 1:19 pm)solarwave Wrote: If there is no God does it matter if people believe in Him?
So do you have a problem with people believing in God? Of course religion has caused some bad things to happen in the past, but I think what it brings to individual lives out weighs this.
For me I was close to becoming an atheist not to long ago. Well to be honest I'm not sure if I would have been atheist or simply acting as if there is no God but I decided that if I did lose faith I would try to bring my christian friends along with me on the reasoning that there is hope and purpose in christianity that you can't have in atheism. Not to say you have no hope or purpose in your life, but that it isn't the same.
What do you think and why?
If we take your initial statement "If there is no god" to be the starting point, then I have many problems with people choosing to believe in a falsehood.
Leaving aside issues of false hope and wasted lives & efforts; I believe that the human race must leave its superstitions behind in order to progress. As long as people believe that 'this life' is merely a precursor to another, 'better' existence, people will continually be inclined not to strive to improve 'this life' for ourselves, others and future generations; but rather live 'this life' in a manner which will facilitate progression to the 'better life'.
I think that the fact that religious views still determine the chances of political candidates is a travesty, and the fact that otherwise reasonable people would be disinclined to vote for a person, because they didn't share an unsubstantiated belief about what happens after we die is equally detrimental to society at large.
Also, I must take issue with your comment about hopes and purposes "Not to say you have no hope or purpose in your life, but that it isn't the same". Why? Why aren't my hopes the same as yours?
I'd be willing to bet that our actual hopes and purposes themselves are pretty similar actually. The only difference being that you endow your hopes and purpose with additional supernatural intention, whereas I see mine as eminating from natural processes.
