Originally posted by twhitehead The OP question is not about what effect the existence or non-existence of God has, but what effect putting faith in a non-existent God has.
It's like gambling. If you win one round, you think you are king, you believe your ship has come in, even if you went through 10 losing rounds.
So having faith in a non-existent god bolsters your self-confidence in the short term but after a lifetime of having nothing happen has to introduce stress into your life I would think.
At least pretending there is no such thing as a god leads one to expect nothing in the first place of supernatural events.
But is it the existence or non-existence of a god that causes people to fight about it?
Surely the existence or non existence of god is irrelevent to the question of what effect the belief in god has had on the course of human history. Trying to weigh up the pros and cons would be a massive task though.
Originally posted by sonhouse It's like gambling. If you win one round, you think you are king, you believe your ship has come in, even if you went through 10 losing rounds.
So having faith in a non-existent god bolsters your self-confidence in the short term but after a lifetime of having nothing happen has to introduce stress into your life I would think.
At least pretending t ...[text shortened]... s no such thing as a god leads one to expect nothing in the first place of supernatural events.
But it may not be to your liking when you get something you don't expect. 😏
I think I can know God doesn't exist in the same way that I know that Unicorns don't exist. The available evidence tells me so. I acknowledge the possibility that I may be wrong in both cases. However, I also think you cannot be absolutely certain about anything you know. When we say "I know X", it can be justified to say so even though we are not 100% sure.
After all, there is a slight possibility that no one really exists, and my consciousness is just the product of some computer simulation...
Originally posted by SwissGambit It makes a world of difference.
Faith in God goes hand in hand with believing religious books like the Bible. Based on the Bible, some people think the world is only 6000 years old. They think that the first human was created out of a pile of dust. They think it is OK that God ordered/committed mass killings and genocide in the Old Testament. They bel ...[text shortened]... y planning to politics. To say that having faith makes no difference is a very naive statement.
By this thinking, ANY misapplication of information from ANY source ought to be outlawed--- no matter what the original intent.
Originally posted by FreakyKBH By this thinking, ANY misapplication of information from ANY source ought to be outlawed--- no matter what the original intent.
Originally posted by Grampy Bobby [b]If God didn't exist...
"If God didn't exist, what possible difference would it make whether or not people put their faith in Him?" -JV.
gb[/b]
A chain:
1. Goddon't exist.
2. Sumfolks believe even so he do.
3. And sumfolks don't.
4. They tear each others' livers out.
5. The vultures praise God for the bounty of fresh organ meat.
1. Goddon't exist.
2. Sumfolks believe even so he do.
3. And sumfolks don't.
4. They tear each others' livers out.
5. The vultures praise God for the bounty of fresh organ meat.
5. The vultures praise God for the bounty of fresh organ meat.[/b] Or not?
23 Feb '12 18:41
If God didn't exist...
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