(November 14, 2009 at 1:19 pm)solarwave Wrote: If there is no God does it matter if people believe in Him?Yes. Yes it does to me. It matters a lot. To me, believing in a deity and making extraordinary claims sans extraordinary evidence is akin to believing in the invisible pink dragon that breathes smokeless fire on my garage. It is a shared delusion that is used as a rallying point for communities - that is very bad to me, because it places a form of pride in uncritical thought for the community and gives an individual an excuse to be not critical for one of their core beliefs.
(November 14, 2009 at 1:19 pm)solarwave Wrote: 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.The placebo effect brought on as a side affect of acupuncture and holistic medicines helps people and brings comfort to them. You argue from a "Whats the harm" perspective that is covered routinely from anti-vaccination idjits to the witch burnings in Kenya. It is harmful - it doesn't take a genius to figure out that just because some unexpected good came out from rotten roots doesn't make said "roots" any less rotten.
(November 14, 2009 at 1:19 pm)solarwave Wrote: 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.Wait, what? A lack of belief in something thoroughly unprovable means a lack of hope and purpose? You make no sense - that implies that you can not derive hope and purpose from life, who you are, etc,.
(November 14, 2009 at 1:19 pm)solarwave Wrote: What do you think and why?
I respond with:
Marcus Aurelius Wrote:"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
