Which is better, believing in a god or not?

Not to believe.
If you dont believe in a man that watches over you then you can just live a carefree life.
Or just do like i do.
Do all sorts of sinful activity's and do what the fuck ever you want.
Then when you old.
Worship this holy lord people talk about.
He forgives all sins..so your guaranteed to get into this so called heaven.

I believe it is important to have a faith of some kind. It is because of faith, such as Christianity, that we build good morals like that stealing from others and killing someone for no good reason, other than self-defense, is wrong. If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.

Read Pascal's Wager. Well worth your time.

I was a Hindu believer, but now I try to keep a healthy balance between acceptance, tolerance, and discussion.

I can accept that there are people who believe in a higher power, I can tolerate people who claim that their god is the "True" god, I am willing to change my opinion and even my belief, IF , they can provide sufficient evidence that is both logical and doesn't defy the laws of nature.

If you care about what is true with our reality, then no believing in a god is not better.

I didn't even know what I was til I was 15 or so because religion never really comes up often where I live in Sweden. Then I begun researching and watching debates and found out people were actually labeling themselves as atheist or theist and then all religions.

This is how I see it. Believing in great things, whatever it is fiction or fact can give great strength. But the important thing is knowing if it is fact or fiction, and to ensure it cannot be used by others to manipulate you.

I can draw great inspiration from many fictional story in similar ways I have seen religious people do with their religion and faith. But I know and accept that fiction is fiction, but that doesn't lower the impact the feelings have on me. The message is still powerful.

So to conclude my post, in my eyes no belief in a god without proper scientific proof will never be good. Because as long as such things exists, there will be people claiming they know gods will and use it for their own agendas.
If humanity want to have any hope of surviving and even prosper, one of two things MUST happen.

1. Every single person must join the exact same religion and NEVER ever have a single person go away from it for as long as we exist.

2. All religion must go away by our own free will.

Only in this way can we stop creating barriers between eachother, make some people think they are doing "god's" will for evil such as maybe some extremist one day using a religion as an excuess to set a nuke off. I mean what do they care, all believers will go to heaven and the none believers will die.

This scenario frightens me greatly and I do hope we find a way to not let this happen.

That being said, I am very well aware of that religion is hardly our only issue, but it is one potential weapon that can be used to self destruct our race, never a bad thing to have one less of those around.

Personally I think the whole idea of choosing one's beliefs is immoral. For me, there isn't quite much difference between "believe" and "know", it's only a matter of relative certainty. So to choose what to believe, is like choosing what to know.

Just imagine for a while if it was acceptable to know or "unknow" things on purpose. Imaging a judge announcing that he doens't like an accused so he choses to know he is guilty. Or that he is his buddy so he'll just not going to know the evidence presented before the court.

That would be bullshit, and so is choosing beliefs. Believe what you think is true and nothign else.

If someone wants a good laugh.

It doesn't really matter whether people believe in God or not .... My decision believing in God shouldn't influence others to believe in God, because it is my belief and mine only.

So asking a question if it is better to believe in God or not really shouldn't be asked to others, rather they should ask it themselves.

Instead of bashing each other with our own personal answer, I would rather make sure first if I truly believe in God, and that this answer should satisfy me alone and not others, get it?

I'm not into the "is believing in a god better or not" thing, because for me any answer is OK, and neither is better than the other. Because people will believe what they want to believe in and what they don't, it's a right afforded to each and every one of us.

(This just my opinion) I do believe in God, or maybe, I believe there is a power that so big, that it ahead of us all. Well, believe God or not, it's up to you. I never have any resentment or disgust toward someone who don't believe God. I accepted atheist in this world, since I know religions this day seems to bent up to a strange way (I won't say what religion). After all, that's what they believed in. As long as they don't think that "killing is good" or something, it's okay right? Since I don't decide the person is good or bad trough what they believed but how they act.

Positive Atheist, it means that you believe in a different god.

It all depends on YOU. Belive what you want, after all it is America. As for myself, I'm Christian.

I believe that everyone should make their own decisions what to believe in not based on what other people want for them, so make sure your decision is truly your own. Whether God is real or not - I could never say, but I believe that even if he is, by some chance, a real entity, that he's a major asshole who is being entertained by the suffering of us humans, and not the benevolent being everyone thinks of him as. Of course, I'm atheist myself, so it goes without saying what my opinion would be. While I hate organized religion, there are certain moral principles that come from religion I do believe in - such as treating others the way you expect others will treat you, forgiveness and patience, because I think everyone deserves a second chance, and working hard to achieve your goals and not expecting others to do the work for you.

The bottom line of what I'm saying is that you should always believe in what you think is right - don't be led around by the nose at just a few words someone says, and have faith in your own decisions, not the decisions of others. If you trust your heart and your conscience then you're usually doing it right.

Think I am the same way, somewhat.

I hate to rant about this but, I don't believe that whatever is in the bible is actually from God's own mouth. I've told everyone who asked me about my own religion and I gave them the same reason why I don't believe in reading the bible means anything. If it is so easy for someone to make a movie, game, book, or T.V. show then what was stopping anyone back then from writing a book? How I see it, the religions catholic and christian are nothing but a cult to me. It's no different from anyone other cult.

Oh hey guys I have an idea, lets believe in something that lives in the sky and worship him too even though hundreds of airplanes have been in the sky and not one person or pilot seen an old man with white robes and a long white beard. Not just those gods but it's also the Greek Mythology God's. Everyone claims Zeus isn't/wasn't real at all, but why is Jesus or/and God real? Same sh*t different toilet. In all honesty, it's up to the person if he/she believes in God or not due to their own reasons right? There's my two cents with that subject.

And @ godotccf: Dude, I'd say (and this is just me) be in the middle, that way you can see what both sides say and do. I don't know man, to me religion is just a part of life and life is like a tree growing and then there are branches going different direction. There is just so much that can go with religion so...it's a lot to speculate to me. lol

I am an atheist but I don't hold any prejudice against theists, nor do I think being either makes you better than someone else. I do not outright deny spirituality because personal experience has shown me that there's something more to our reality than meets the eye. Anyways, back on topic.

Some time ago I would have said that theists have the favor in this debate, but now I'm not so sure. America is for the most part Christian yet they have the highest prisoner count per capita in the entire world, so that shoots down the whole idea of morale guidelines keeping the peace. While it's impossible to deny the current benefits religion provides the ruling body of a given nation, those benefits are also losing their luster as time passes on, especially now that the majority of the global population won't accept it being used as an excuse for war.

It's hard to say which is factually better at this point for me, we have yet to see the differences between a majority atheist and theist population as atheism is still on it's incline. Perhaps in the future I'll be able to form a solid opinion but for now I can't choose a side in this debate.

You must not have heard a lot of debates on religion then ... Because theists have really bad times defending themself . If you want there's a great show called the atheist experience , it's from texas , all the episodes are on youtubes and the show is in direct every sunday on their site .



Relegion is not helping anyone to get their morality , people have always decided their own morals by themself . The proof for that is that every christian is not even listening to the bible's morals it teaches , they are chosing which one they want to follow and ignores the others they don't like .

Theism vs atheism debates can end in the favor of either side, it all depends on who's in the debate. The Atheist Experience is anti-theist media, obviously they're going to highlight why they're right and the other side is wrong. If you were a Christian, you'd be looking at pro-theist media and the same would be done.

Nan , i don't watch it because i'm atheist and they are defending atheism , i'm watching it because they make sens and their arguments are based on proof while every other debates i saw from theists were bullshit , it just didn't make any sens , was easily conter arguable or was just made up on the spot with no sources to validate what they were saying .

The reason why i like watching it too is because they know what they are talking abouth , they know more abouth the bible than most christians and they aren't even christians . How do you want a christian to win a debate if they don't even know what they are defending ...

But still , i saw many debates with people who prepared themself and knew a lot abouth relegious debates and still , they lost .

I chalange you to find me one single debate , no , i'll be faire , one arguement that a theist won .

Well I believe there's to many things wrong with religion overall, logically and morally. I say why bother fussing about believing in religion? What does your mind and heart tell you? Are you an atheist? An agnostic? or do you want to believe in something spiritual that isn't Christianity or anything of the sort. Maybe you could go for

The question then leads to another question .. for example what makes people believe in God?

- Is it because everyone else believes in him and now you are somehow forced to believe in him without you actually finding the answer yourself?

To believe in God means finding the answers on your own without any disruptions from the outside, which I believe is called a holy journey, to travel around the world and see what connects us, what makes us special, why we humans are the only species on this planet that can change everything.

So if you ask me is it better to believe in God ... I would say yeah, why not, the question is how do you portray him as? I believe that is the test.