Which is better, believing in a god or not?

To answer a question like this is not as simple which we think is better but rather why we think how we think.

I believe what I believe because what I know to be true disproves what others know to be true.

I think you should seriously take a few minutes a day and think over why you doubt yourself and the reason you're in this religion. Constantly ask yourself why. Do this before you go to bed and sleep on it. Maybe when you wake up you'll have your answer. If I recall correctly a part of your brain called the Hippocampus is sometimes active when you sleep. The Hippocampus is involved in the sorting of memories or something like that. Like when you dream...


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Well now, I'm impressed. Sadly it still doesn't change the fact that you're a ********. However, I'll give you props for posting it, as it was a very insightful video.

If believing in god helps you become a better person then by all means...

That's all this world needs... People that can understand one another, regardless of beliefs. I mean think about it, with so many religions out there, how can someone say one is "more" than the other? Who's right, who's wrong, it doesn't really matter in the end, as long as you can accept people as they are and love them for it.

If you need to believe in a magic thunder wizard to become a better person, then you're not really a good person.

Oh, the regular religion-bashing, I have already posted in one of the merged threads, but I just can't keep away from these discussions.

This. This is imo the best post in this thread, everyone should listen to this.

I grew up in a secular-Christian environment, Christianity have always been there but it was never forced on me. However, I did become a Christian in my early teens by my own choice, and there is nothing wrong with having beliefs as long as you don't force these views upon others. Say what you want about religious people, but don't forget that the majority of them are pretty chill, not the [insert religious text] preaching lunatics the media makes them out to be, sure, those kind of people exist as well, but they do give their religions a bad name. The same obviously goes for atheists, there are stubborn, bigoted atheists as well who are equally narrow minded, equally devoted to something that ultimately have just as little proof as what they're preaching against. (the existence of a higher power)

Personally, I now try to avoid putting a label on my belief, I really want to believe that there is some kind of higher power that I could rely on. I really really wish that there is an afterlife in which I can live happily until the end of time, I really do, but I won't get my hopes up; because ultimately this is something that can never, and never will be proved, thus thinking about it is evidently complete and utter nonsense.

My point is that there are idiots and bigots in all camps, we can't escape that, but since no one will ever be right everyone should just be allowed to believe what they are comfortable with, and no one should be allowed to give them shit about it, since their own believes will always be equally unprovable.

"If you believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you have lost nothing -- but if you don't believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you will go to hell. Therefore it is foolish to be an atheist." Paraphrase of Pascal's Wager.
Believe and you lose nothing. Don't and you might lose all.

But in light of my comment, I am a Buddhist, but worship the Shinto gods. Whether or not the Christian God exists is merely up to infinite probability that they can exist. Believing in a god is not bad nor good, just a way of living.

I will clarifys as I has herd the word from jezus himselfin,

U dont be bilevin in him, he no bielevin in u nigga, u all be burning casue yall be wishin u was god.

Please speak properly for such topics. Thank you.

daaammmnn diss nigga is fuqin wiff mah home boi jezus
diss niggas trippin

I believe there is a God, but I do not worship him/her. Believer or not, as long as you don't impose your beliefs on others and have an open mind about things, you're a good person to me.

It is difficult to prove whether believing in a god is better than not believing in a god, and vice versa.

Unless we can come up with statistics proving that people believing (or not believing) in a god are more successful in life, much happier, etc, it is up to ourselves to determine which is the better of both choices.

kind of like this, although it doesn't account for success or happiness in anything, just failure.
http://www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm

Yeah, because those numbers are totally not proportional to the total amount of believers in the country.

Chlor! Your new avatar picture makes you look like a faggot. Also, why can't you just believe in yourself, or in the humans around you? Or that the universe is moving in ways that reflect human nature?

If you need to believe in a magic thunder wizard in the sky to become a better person, then you're not really a good person.

Come at me broski.

Oh, hey Neo, I was waiting for your response, and my ava is as awesome as the artist who created the original pic, but I don't expect you to have an eye for good street-art.

OT: It's obvious that you didn't read my post, again, you should start off by doing that. I clearly stated that I personally don't believe in any god, but that I wish that there actually was an afterlife, because honestly, what would you prefer? Living in paradise for the rest of your life, or going out like a candle and only have the maggots to feed of your dead body?

The reason I can't believe in the humans around me is because the general public consists of selfish pricks that only make the world an even worse place than what it already is, if believing in something would help them become better people then that's a good thing, at least imo. I hold the conviction that what a person does, not what they think, dictates if that person is "good" or "bad"(concepts which are completely personal as well), and if someone does good because they believe some thunder wizard in the sky will reward them for it thats a good thing. The fact that there most likely will be no reward is a problem that they have to deal with themselves. As I also stated in my earlier post, the one that you didn't read past the first few lines of, the problem is when people do bad things because they think the wizard in the sky will reward them for that instead; but there are also people who do bad things even if they don't care about the wizard, people who even do bad things against those people just because they believe something, and that's an equally big problem.

The existence of a higher being is something that will never be proved nor disproved, and as long as people don't feel the need to go rampage on those that believe different it shouldn't matter what makes them become good people.

Haha I love it how Chlor kept using the "Wizard" term. Anyways, Neo, we all have different motivations in life, or inspirations, if people need to believe in the Wizard to be a better person, does that mean they'd be bad (or worse off) if they didn't believe in the Wizard? Not really, just means they would live their lives differently, but that's besides the point. You're assuming that people who believe in God are inherently not good, but are good because of fear of divine punishment, if I read between the lines, and that, good sir, is a generalization, and it makes you seem really ignorant, since, of course, not all people feel that way.

What I hate about religion is how it makes some people discriminate each other based on their belief system. And the saddest part is, the lack-thereof (religion) also makes some biased against people that believe in God, because they feel those people are blind, or ignorant, among other things, which in turn makes you as ignorant and prejudiced as you say they supposedly are.

>missed the point

The religious stats are proportional, but the point is that the nonbelievers in prison are disproportionately small.

inb4 "lol no atheists in foxholes derp"

I'm not gona bash on the fact that those stats are more than a decade old, and how incredibly anti-religion that site is in general, but according to the 2008 ARIS report (American Religion Identification Survey) only 1.5 recognizes themselves as atheist, not the 8-16% that survey states. Now I don't know if they differed on agnostics, atheists and people that simply doesn't give a damn though, or if members of those groups simply don't go to jail.

Different surveys will get results that more agree with what they want, so the site is probably flawed in that respect, and I should have probably checked the date or the website's bias level.

Still pretty sure that the general disproportionate prison population of nonreligious is true though.