Which is better, believing in a god or not?

Why have faith in that which has no faith in you?

Yes?

im getting sick of all your shit goodday first the disaster in japan now this, you better stop it.

getting back on topic yes i do belive in god. people should always have faith in something or else you would live your life empty

God was an effective tool to keep civilization rolling. What could possibly put more fear into someone than the thought of eternal damnation? I'd like to fancy that we are as a species able to move past the idea of eternal grounding, yet we're clinging to it as if our lives depended on it. Some say morals go hand in hand with religion, but do they? What is the purpose of religion? What is the purpose of hanging the idea of God over our heads these days? I would love to believe in God, but I can't wrap my head around the idea. Really, it's a great one. I want to believe, but I just can't! The universe is too beautiful to have been crafted by anyone. How could it be possible?

I'd say believing in God was better a thousand years ago. Now? It's just pathetic. We're slowly realizing we're alone in this existence, so what the fuck is the point of deluding ourselves any further?

By posting this thread, you express doubt in the existence of god, in which from that day on, no matter what, you will not truly believe in God. I personally don't believe in god because there is no logical way heaven could work out.

I'm sorry, but this isn't right. Your faith as an individual is DEFINED by coming to terms with your own doubt and insecurity as a human and afterwards your choice about what you believe. I don't want to throw out something as silly as a "no true scotsman", but I can speak personally from being a Christian that having a crisis of faith is something that is important and you should go through at some point in your life.

It is very easy to remain blind and ignorant and only accept what you are told, but at that point you aren't truly believing it, you are just accepting what you are told. By coming to terms with your own doubt, over a long, often very painful time, you can better understand yourself.

Exploring what you believe and why you believe it is a vital part of growing up. It's a very personal time too. You should do your best to seek advice from wiser people, but you have to choose what you believe in yourself.

As to this topic at large, I'll steal a quote from good old Albert Einstein: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Having a faith of some sort is what makes you a complete question. Science teaches you to think with a critical mind and learn how the world works. And Religion teaches you to think with a moral mind and learn why the works. Albert Einstein didn't really believe in a Christian God or really any set organized religion, and yet he was still able to have a faith of his own.

I'll end with this, one thing I believe to be adamantly true and everyone should always hear: Asking questions is never wrong.

Whoah this thread already reached 700 views XD. Anyway I'm seriously considering leaving my Christian/ Roman Catholic roots and going for a different one but I'm considering only 2 others which are Deism and/or just be a plain atheist but I really can't decide between the two...

The question is, is faith and religion the same thing? Also, since your paragraph is kinda confusing to me... are you speaking directly about me? or are you using me as an example.

The first part is responding directly to you, which it then uses as a springboard to the larger issue.



This is another important point that more of us Christians need to be aware of. Being a Christian doesn't mean you aren't a sinner. You are not a better person than anyone. If anything, you need to understand while others may do wrong out of ignorance, every mistake you make you should know better. Pride is something that is something we must ALWAYS fight.

At the damn end of the day if you are happy at what you believe in then who fucking cares its your life and all that matters is that you are happy in it God or not.

yeah adsadsa you better not have your own opinions people on fakku just plane don't like them!

Every culture and religion will have doubts sooner or later with their god it's human nature there's no escaping it.

It's better to believe only in one God. Whatever nationality or race or whatever you believe in your belief in your god is your faith.

I believe faith and religion are two entirely different things. You can have faith in a higher power and not be religious, religion can be followed without believing in God as well.

It is human nature since long ago to seek something that is greater than him/her, thus 'creating' those entities that people refer as Gods. Ancient people believes that there are Gods that resides within something big/powerful, like in mountain, sun, lighting, storm, earthquake, etc. That is because they are scared with the thought that that something so powerful is not controlled, which giving an unsecured feeling. They want to believe that certain entities with strong powers are controlling those disasters, and that with pleasing those entities they have ways to stop those unfortunate events. Those thoughts are what that gave birth to religions (though the form of thinking is already evolved a bit, it is basically still the same). With that way of thinking, when the efforts doesn't produce satisfactory results, someone can easily lose faith. godotccf, I guess you are having that dilemma. Rather than becoming atheist, I guess it is a little bit better that you go for deism. With deism, someone will not lose the feeling that those things in this world that is unexplainable and works in mysterious ways are supervised by a powerful entity (as stated above). It is a better thought than thinking that the world is moving randomly with no rule at all, and humans are just living as just. That is just my opinion, though.

I'm sorry if my english is sucks, thus making people more confused than before...

What's not to like? You bashing religions & disdaining believers is a good sign of opinion.

The thing is while tolerating lads stroking their dicks to various batshit cartoon drawings you choose to butthurt over religios lads (stroking their dicks to etc) when basically you could just perceive them and their views using the same
"different strokes" approach. And if you don't want to (because the idea of god/religion looks stupid to you) then you're just being a narrow-minded bigot.

Which helps you more is the one you should go with. For some people, believing in God gives them hope in life an a meaning. For some people, God had no meaning and would rather found out about the world without being influenced by religion. Im a Buddhist so I cant say whether it is a good thing or not to believe in God, but as long as you keep your mind open, either choice would be perfectly fine.

I think it is always better to Believe rather than do nothing. Spice up your life and possibly is an insurance when you pass away from this World we live in. Ah, feels nice to be in Great spirit too. =]

Why the need to label and constrain yourself to a certain idea?

If you can, try to believe in God.

There are two major reasons for to suggest you this:
1. In case God exist you will be glad you did, and believing does not hurt anyone
2. The placebo effect is proven scientifically, so if you really can convince your self God exist and this somehow will bring you some physical benefit (e.g. less prone to disease or curing your self of already existing ones), then your body will make it so. The more you believe the better the effect.

All in all it comes down to whether you can really convince your self God exist, if you can then you really should try your best to do so :)