(April 19, 2015 at 6:06 pm)robvalue Wrote: OK Lek, are you suggesting atheists pretend to believe in a bunch of supernatural claims so that they can enjoy the benefits of Christianity?
Beliefs, or lack of beliefs, are not a choice. They are a state of mind. If you are "choosing" to believe in Christianity, then in fact you don't believe it and are just saying you do. If you really do believe it, then you have reasons for doing so. They may be good or bad reasons.
I have not a single reason to think anything regarding Christianity is true, so my only option would be to pretend to believe. The only way I could actually believe is if I receive new evidence, or I consider old evidence and change my mind about it.
Also, the idea of worship is ridiculous to me. I'd never worship anyone or anything. Even if God really was all good, I wouldn't worship him. A god needs nothing from me, and if it expects something, it's extremely petty and very ungodly. More like an egotistical human who needs attention all the time.
I certainly wouldn't want to be within a million miles of the monster in the bible, so you'd have to convince me that in fact God is being totally misrepresented in the bible. But I still wouldn't worship him.
I'm not suggesting that anybody should pretend to believe in God. If someone believes in a God who loves us and is involved in our lives and they demonstrate these kind of results, then this is evidence for the existence of the God they believe in. We accept the existence of many things in the universe not because we can observe them, but because we can observe their effects on the universe. If you met someone who you thought had it totally together, wouldn't you be interested in finding out why?