I don’t believe in God, although it’s very nice to have somebody to pray to when you are in a bad situation with no control. Like there is still a way for things to go right because even if you don’t have control, somebody has.
I’m an agnostic theist, I believe in the possibility of god(s) or god-like entities.
There is a quote I resonate with by Marcus Aurelius:
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. I am not afraid.
Exactly! I haven’t seen any proof of a god(s) but I’m willing to keep an open mind. At the end of the day if I live life trying to do well, I should be good.
That quote resonates a lot with me as well.
Yes
I don’t think god would truly allow a world like this to exist, too much suffering all because some bitch ate an apple
nah, religion seems like a scam that usually results in unhinged beliefs and abuse.
Not a fan generally speaking.
if you dig into any religions beliefs, it goes into some wild fairy tail stuff that just…doesnt happen.
Not to mention that folks tend to base their morals on religion, and religions have very flawed morals.
the difference between god and myself is that if I could, I would prevent a child from getting bone cancer.
If you need to rely on an external force and fear of hell to have morals, you’re not a good person.
Religion did have good morals in theory. Not in practice.
Also, unrelated to your points, religion didn’t evolve. It stayed about the same for thousands of years, despite new science.
Religion did have good morals in theory
Which one is that?
That jesus dude had some pretty liberal thoughts. Buddhism was a nice reaction to the caste system. The method of delivery may not be inherently moral, but it is possible to manipulate a population in a way overall beneficial to society.
That jesus dude had some pretty liberal thoughts
He personally, maybe. I didn’t know the guy. The religion that grew around him, though … not so much.
I’m not sure if it’s because of his father or he just had terrible editors for his posthumous book release. But some of the stuff in there is quite abhorrent.
i didnt say religion only had bad morals. broken clocks and such.
but christianity in specific has a lot of flawed morals that christians handwave. like Mary being 12 when she gave birth to Jesus, or pretty much everything old testament.
claims of a perfect and just omnipotent god while stuff like that flies is sloppy.
No, but I wish God was real.
Humans are not evolved enough past our selfishness. If we all lived believing that our actions are being judged by a benevolent father figure, we’d have less people screwing each other over.
Most of humanity legitmatly believed in some kind of god for most of history. It didn’t stop people from screwing each other over.
Nope.
Yes, even if not really in an established denomination (despite going to church).
If there is a god, it takes a special sadist to allow the amount of torment present on earth.
So I prefer to believe there’s no higher spirit ravelling in the suffering of all creatures rather than there being a malevolent creator watching with glee as we die a slow, painful death.
doesn’t really have to be a sadist. consider the theory were all just temporary beings in a experimental universe, observed by the supreme scientists that created us, almost like a child playing the sims. an ecological researcher observing a lion eating a deer isn’t supposed to interfere in natural selection for the deer’s sake if they want their study to have any merit.
The researcher observing the lion didn’t create the concept of suffering tho
true, but perhaps if we are created beings, could it be considered just a complication of the model? for example, consider a simulated universe like our own, where a being might get hit by a car. with AI evolved suffient enough, that AI would feel pain and perhaps suffer horrible injuries, even if the intention of creating the independent systems of automobile mechanics, and the laws of physics, and the evolution of the human nervous system wasn’t to induce a state of suffering.
more specifically, on the biology of the nervous system, it’s interesting how fear/pain/suffering itself was just a byproduct of natural selection meant to help us by telling our dumb humanoid ancestors the things we should avoid - things that cause physical damage to our flesh or our mental state, or make it harder to survive. so these things are meant to help us, or we wouldn’t have evolved it at all.
I love what-if scenarios :)
I think you could go one step further with this theory and say that humans are not that important at all. I mean, why would we think we are? Because god told us so? Maybe he just said that to account for some variable and left it at that. Hasn’t looked back at what we were up to since.
In some distant corner of the universe is a much nicer planet where everyone is living in harmony and peace. We’re just the control group :)yes. once I listened to Neil Tyson describe how big the known universe actually is, it’s enough for the mathematical probability that we are the biggest influencers on it that exist to approach zero
basically believing in god is akin to believing that this is all just a game of sims some twisted being is playing
When I was religious (I’m not any more) that was something that never actually troubled me. I believed that god was benevolent but that suffering must be necessary in ways that we humans can’t conceive of. Who were we to question the grander plan?
No.
I was a gnostic atheist but became agnostic atheist. I am very much against organised religions, but I believe anyone should be able to believe in anything they want. At the conditions that they do not try to shove it down the throat of others or hurt anyone with their beliefs.
On God, the thing that made me change my mind is that you cannot clearly define what God is (the definition varies from person to person), so you can’t be certain that it does or doesn’t exist. Is God a bearded dude in the sky? Nature ? The Universe ?
As far as I’m concerned, if God exists, it would be very pretentious to think that it gives a crap about us, and even then, it would probably not be benevolent. Especially when you consider the amount of suffering happening on earth everyday.I believe anyone should be able to believe in anything they want. At the conditions that they do not try to shove it down the throat of others or hurt anyone with their beliefs.
That only works assuming they will never have children, but believers tend to procreate prolifically.
Nope. Never have that I remember.
I did go to Catholic school though
I used to be a pretty devout catholic but went through the whole crisis of faith. So these days, no.
I still wonder a lot about before the big bang, or wherever the actual “start” of everything was and what sparked it or made the energy exist in the first place, but I don’t want to just hand wave it and say God because we don’t have an explanation. But its definitly something I ponder
deleted by creator
Fuck no.
