'Bad reasons' to believe in God

[Edwardo Piet]

Its funny yes. Its pathetic yes. Its amusing yes. Its stupid...yes.
But its still a 'bad reason to believe in God'. its extremely pathetic. Because wagering, betting. Isn't actually belief. LMFAO! Faking belief is not belief. Pretending to believe in God. Is NOT believing in God. Belief is not a matter of policy

I wouldn't say Pascal's Wager was specifically bad reasoning, it's just bad reasoning for us ... what I mean by that is that it depends on what you value most from life. In essence Pascal's Wager is an insurance policy, it seems to say what have you got to lose by believing, and that could be true if you're not the kind of person that tries to use their mental faculties a great deal, it might actually make no difference to you so hell yeah, why not hedge your bets? If however, you value your freedom to think then the wager is not good because believing in something without evidence, without good reason effectively imprisons your mind in a cage. There are smart theists out there (yes they really exist despite being minus a few rational brain cells)that don't consider their minds imprisoned and I presume that is because they've bought into the idea but I haven't and I would so the wager doesn't work for me at all.

Kyu

Well I say its not bad reasoning to them obviously. Otherwise they wouldn't do it. And it IS bad reasoning to us. But that doesn't mean that it isn't just bad reasoning.
Because even IF all you care about is fear and desire it fails completely anyway. If you actually believe that faking belief is belief and your God would be any better than any other.
So I'd say its definitely bad reasoning. Whether they think it is or not. If the other reasons I gave are bad despite the fact the person saying it wouldn't think so. Same goes for this. I think its VERY bad reasoning.
Yes lots of people fall for it. But its stupid narrow-minded biased thinking. I'd say that its very bad reasoning. Belief is not a matter of policy. Faking belief is NOT belief! Its amazing that so many people don't know that! And why on earth would betting on what god, if all your doing is betting. Be any better than betting on an OTHER God that is about eternal punishment and reward. Why choose "God" when Allah could be God? Why choose Allah when "God" could be God?
Its extremely bad reasoning as far as I'm concerned. Whether narrow minded people consider it to be or not. Hey some people could consider ANYTHING they want to be good reasoning.
I say that completely faking your belief=Sincere belief.
Is like 2+1=4.
I don't care how many people think fake belief thought over and over again to your self=sincere belief. Thats delusional. And extremely bad reason to believe in God. Even if you DO think that risk/reward is all that matters and you don't care about the actual truth of it.
If God wants belief! That doesn't mean faking belief and pretending to believe what you DON'T!
If you already believe in him however, why do you need the wager? There's no point in the wager either way. If you believe in him you don't need it. If you don't believe in him you're only FAKING belief so its not what God is supposed to want anyway!
What could be MORE pathetic and that? Letting the fact so many narrow-minded people who don't understand but into it.
Its not just a bad reason for US. Its a bad reason for ANYONE. You shouldn't fake belief just for a risk/reward reason that doesn't work. And actually think its just as good as sincere belief.
In the bible does God ever say: "Pretend to believe in me and you shall be considered to be genuinely believed. In fact maybe I - despite all my supreme intelligence - won't know the difference. In fact you can trick me this way and I the almighty God will think you are REALLY believing me when you're just faking it".
No. God says he knows when people are believing or not. He says belief. Not pretend belief.
If God thinks that faking belief will do, then he's perfectly happy for atheists to pretend to believe and not actually believe. He's actually happy with that. That will do.
Where did they get the IDEA that FAKE belief=belief? That betting on what you don't actually believe in just for risk/reward= BELIEF? Thats an insane reason. Insanely bad thinking as far as I'm concerned.