I don't get it. Why do some people subscribe to the theory that the existence of evil and strife is evidence of the non-existence of God?
I don't, and I don't think it's a sound arguement at all.
God doing nothing about evil has never been a factor in my disbelief of his existence. I believe there is a natural and neccesary balance between good and bad.
Ummm... because God rewards?
This is where I start laughing at the simplicity of some people's religious beliefs.
Weirdly, I think i respect this more.
You believe in God, and think it will make you happier, because the bible says if you do you get a reward. Well good luck, I hope you win.
People around you...who also eventually die and cease to be and are forgotten. So nothing that anyone does matter in the long run. Life and death itself has no ultimate meaning, and is pointless. Having an afterlife or somehow being immortal would be the only way it is truly worth it to live at all. If neither exist (and obviously I am not saying either does) then everyone's ultimate fate is to fade away and I thing a huge reason religion developed in the first place was to give people hope for a next life...a next life that no one can proves exists and may well be a lie.
Religion offers an afterlife and to me, that's it's big hook...not that I buy it myself, but that is the hook of it and at one time I did buy it.
I don't get it. I truly don't understand the obsession with afterlife.
As I've said before, I find my life means more BECAUSE it will end, and is fleeting and rare. I find that I am enthusiastic about doing more with it, because i don't have much time and I don't have anything else to look forward to but all the happiness I can bring myself in this life.
Why spend your whole life just looking forward to the afterlife, because you'll be happy there. Why can't you just be happy here?
You keep saying it's pointless because it ends...
Would you be happier if you were immortal? Would that give your life more meaning? More purpose?
I just don't think it would.
Yes.
But don't be naive that it's only a phenomenon apparent in people who subscribes to religion. We all serve someone or something with the promise of a reward. The only difference is that divine reward is far more fulfilling which goes beyond financial gains.
That is not the only difference.
The biggest problem I have with this reward is the idea that you get it if your a good little christian/muslim etc. If you are obedient. If you follow all the rituals and you are very very sorry when you mess something up, then you will get a reward.
I always get this image in my head of the goody two shoes annoying brother, who always dobs you in, sucks up in every way possible, and seems to look at you as if to say 'nahnahnahnahnah' every time he gets 'rewarded.'
And with this religious reward, there is this sense that the people who think they are going to get it, and deserve it, are
looking down at the rest of us.
And that bothers me a lot.
The afterlife is the coolest club on the block, God is the bouncer, and the line to get in is your life. Are you now filled with meaning and purpose? When God decides whether you get in, does this validate your existence?
Personally, I think the afterlife sounds bloody boring. I'd much rather die.
I have nothing against other people making religion a large part of their lives, but I absolutely abhor when people insinuate they my life is less fullfilling than theirs because I don't. How can they make a judgement on how content I feel? Makes no sense.
Agreed.
You make the assumption that religion is needed for ethics, this is not the case.
Agreed alot.
For many people, life is never rewarding and nothing but an exercise in pain. At least an afterlife gives them hope of a good life after a bad life. I feel the promise of an afterlife is the appeal of religion above anything else. The thought of nonexistence is the the most horrifying thing I can contemplate. But I'm not saying it is so or that it isn't.
But can you not hope that THIS life will turn into a good life at some stage in your development?
That's what keeps me going daily. I always have hope that my life is going to get better, and that all of my dreams will eventually come true in one way or another.
But when I refer to people whose lives are nothing but exercises in pain, I mean those who are oppressed in countries across the world for various reasons, some (not all) for religious reasons. I don't know if the removal of religion itself would improve the world but I do believe secularism and religious tolerance in all nations is essential.
This is definitely a difficult one. I think people who are in a life situation where there is little or no hope of it getting better do need religion. Whatever makes them feel better, to me, is fine.
