Believing out of FEAR

More and more I'm starting to see people claiming to believe in God because they have "nothing to lose" by doing so. That statement itself shows the person in question doesn't have "faith" in their religion.

The idea that you have nothing to lose is moronic and false. Think of all the time you waste going to church, praying, discussing religion, etc. You commit yourself one way or the other, and stick to it. I am fully expecting to hear replies from Christians saying that it gives you a moral standing, etc. The same logic applies to this, if you need religion to guide you morally, there's something wrong! If the only reason you do not go out and commit violent crimes is because you're afraid of being smitten, it shows you lack true faith in what you supposedly believe!

I am fully expecting to get a lot of shit for this, but it just bugs me when people pretty much follow the leader and believe only out of fear. This is the 21st century, you have the facts available, make a decision (whether it be a theistic viewpoint or an atheistic viewpoint, idgaf) and STAND BY IT. Be yourself, not who you think "God" wants you to be, or who your family or friends want you to be.

Discuss/rebuttal.

edit: Not trying to start a debate on whether or not you should or should not believe in God. If you're going to start that shit, do it somewhere else. This is for the people who are on the fence about it and or believing only and solely out of fear of being wrong.

edit2: Since pretty much nobody either understands me or just chose not to read the post, I'll sum it up in nice red bolded and underlined text for the morons out there: I AM NOT TRYING TO SAY ATHEISM IS CORRECT, I AM NOT TRYING TO SAY THEISM OF ANY SORT IS CORRECT. READ THE FUCKING POST!

edit3: Requested topic to be closed, I think only 2 or 3 people who have posted have even understood my point here and seen that I'm not bashing religious people. Good job morons who can't see the point.

 

even though it is the 21st century, people are just as lazy and ignorant as ever.

we live in a society where a lot of people worship pop culture. these idolaters follow whatever is popular at the time.

your just lucky that pop culture has made Christianity and a belief in a formal god unpopular.



old ways: believe in god for fear of going to hell

new ways: believe in all things pop culture tells you for fear of being uncool.

it will be a long time before people start using reason in every decision they make.

 

I am just hoping that in the future, humans will get to the point where logic and reason dominates our lives, not spirituality and religion. Again I'm not trying to start a religious debate but religion and religious morals impede scientific progress. Just think of where we'd be technologically without religious oppression for the past couple thousand years.

 

The reasons for my believing have yet to be posted. Belief out of fear? How idiotic. Belief because of pop culture and fear of being unaccepted? Idiotic as well.

 

why do we need scientific progress?
it is not all good.

as someone once said:
we have communication between boston and france, yet we have nothing to say.


also, if you think science is all good, look at the atom bomb.

 

On the flip side of nuclear warfare is nuclear power. Science simply reveals truths and provides opportunities; the choices we make with that knowledge are the responsibility of ourselves alone.

 

It's not science that kills people; it's the people. And if people pull a 22nd century crusade, it's not science to blame.

 

First of all you should not be critizing other people because of what they choose to believe in. There are thousands and thousands of unanswerable questions on Earth that Science cannot explain. Thus people believe... the world is an amazing place and you can never know.

 

Believing out of fear...

Sounds like that shit the government uses on us.

 

we have enough natural power at our fingertips without needing to create risky nuclear power. look at the situation in japan with their reactors. do we need to take those risks?

due to science, we now are able to destroy our own planet.

imo, modern science is analogous to giving a madman a gun.
sure, it is not the gun that is to blame, but its connection with the man who fired it.

for god sakes, even our crusade against bacteria has left us at the end of a golden age, with penicillin resistant bacteria looming on the horizon

 

Science empowers us with knowledge; whether we use this knowledge for constructive or destructive purposes is a separate matter entirely.

You've got to be kidding.

Science revels the world in full grandeur, whereas faith tells us to be satisfied with erroneous non-explanations of the universe. Perhaps you're happy being ignorant about nature's marvels, but you sure as hell shouldn't try to drag the rest of us down with you.

...

 

So I take it you'd rather live in the dark ages where the pinnacle of military weaponry was the crossbow? And where instead of having super bacteria that are harder to fight (but not impossible) you'd rather have no form of defense other than our body's own natural defenses? Yeah, your logic doesn't really make a ton of sense to me. Also if you really think we can rely on nonrenewable resources such as fossil fuels or natural gas you're not thinking very far into the future. In the next 100 years or so all of the things we rely on today will probably be so tapped out it would be infeasible to continue to use them as energy sources. Sure, you or I might not be around when that day comes, but what would it make us if we chose to ignore obvious scientific advances that could do away with the need for fossil fuels? Monsters. That kind of thought scheme is setting the next generation up for failure.

 

hmm its all the same, when ppl know theres no way out they turn to "god" its pathetic cuz they r ultimatly friad of death.. when the time comes, the time comes ya knw? hmm just like my father.. suffers from liver and kindney problems, for smoking and drinking all his life, hes only 36 and hes in his final years, now he turns to God like a dumbass, believing he will be saved... i for one even tho young have had enough experiences to say, if there was a "god" then congratz.. u wrnt crazy.. ither way im not ganna pray for him or cherish him like some idoit... im srry if i offend anyone out there buh tbh idgaf

 

where did i say fossil fuels?
we can gain energy from ocean currents, the wind, solar energy. there is enough out there, it is just untapped. this is another argument tho.

before we had ships sailing across the world, we knew very few plagues, as they were only local( and people were able to build immunities/resistances over time), and were unable to travel vast distances to places that were not resistant to it yet.




i find it laughable that you find the best alternative to fossil fuels to be nuclear energy.




as for the other persons post about science empowering us.

sure, it does give us greater potential to do bad, but it also gives us greater potential to do bad.

i would take a more stable world, where there is less potential for good but also less potential for bad, over a world where fear of utter chaos is not unfounded.

 

Maybe you missed the part where I said this topic was meant for THOSE people. Yes it's idiotic, that's pretty much exactly what I've been saying. Not sure what you're getting at lol. :huh:

/facepalm

You obviously either are stupid, or didn't even bother to read the main post. My whole point was that people who make their decisions based on fear are stupid. Basically these people are doubtful at the very least about "believing". Do you really expect that in basically just a few decades we would unravel every mystery there ever was or ever will be? Science has only had room to breathe free from religious oppression for a very short amount of time. You're trying to provoke a religious debate, which is not what this thread is about and I even took the time to say that multiple times. I don't personally care if you're a theist of any sort, I only want to snap people out of the mindset of believing only out of fear of being wrong.

 

I actually never implied that we should use nuclear energy.. but while we're on the topic since you seem to be uninformed, the situation in Japan was almost a worst case scenario. We haven't built new reactors in over 30 years or some shit because of stupid treaties. We've come a very long way in the past 30 years, new reactors would solve a lot of the issues that the current ones have.. buuuut as you said, that's a completely different issue than what I was originally talking about, so that said, let's put that behind us.

I don't get how you can honestly think the cons outweigh the pros of science. Nearly everything you enjoy in your modern life is a result of science. You'd really give it all up if it meant we didn't have nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons seem like a small price to pay.

 

not just nuclear weapons

the examples are innumerable
evolving diseases, depleted resources, mass slavery, extinct creatures, substances that will never degrade such as plastic, mass exploitation the list goes on and on

i can live without all the things i live with now

 

What about all the unanswered questions of the world? What is time, space, matter, energy? The answers are all driven by opinion rather than facts. Does a soul exsist, and if it does is it immortal? There are so many questions that Science cannot and will not be able to answer. Thus people believe in God because God provides the answers to thoes people.

 

I agree with OP.i also hate how people are born into their religion and follow it because theyre raised following it.

 

You do that, I'll be here enjoying my cell phone, laptop, and other awesome electronics courtesy of science. You're missing the entire point of the OP anyway, so just let it go, kai? Not here to argue about anything you seem intent on bringing up.

"The answers are all driven by opinion rather than facts." The exact same logic can be applied to all religions, except the opinion used to form religion is not one of evidence, but one of faith in the unknown. I also can't believe you're asserting that religion provides a more accurate answer to things such as time, space, matter or energy LOL. That is just laughable, I don't even need to say anything more. You seem very intent on starting a religious debate with me, which I am not interested in so please kindly fuck off my topic unless you have something valid to add to the conversation. Nothing you have said so far has even remotely related to the original post or any of my points. All you see is an atheistic viewpoint and you proceed to thinking that I'm bashing your faith, which I am not (at least, not until you started being all preachy to me) even though you have obviously understood nothing that's been said.