I just have this one thing that I can't get into my head about atheism. First let me introduce the topic a bit...

You have no proof that there is a God, no scientific proof anyway. You also have no proof that there isn't a God. Ok so far?
Let's take a look at the Christian God for a quick sec. For argument, let's assume everything is true, he exists, etc. He promises eternal life after death, guidance and care during life on Earth and in exchange he asks that you do not sin, you acknowledge when you have sinned and you admit and accept him for what he is. Now most law-abiding moral people do the first two anyway.

Ok now let's assume there is no God. Ok so you die, you die and there is no ultimate purpose to life. Woohoo.

If you believe in the first argument that there is a God etc., and you learn about him, and in the end believe then two things could happen when you die:

1) You will be rewarded for your faith with eternal life and happiness when you die, i.e. you go to "a better place". Everything is cool.
2) You were mistaken about God and He doesn't exist and you just die. What have you lost? Nothing.

If you believe in the 2nd argument that there is no God you live your whole life in that belief and then you die. If you were mistaken and there is a God you will have lost your whole Earth life without that knowledge and the happiness, peace, guidance it could have brung. You also could lose your place in eternal life. If you were not mistaken then you die anyway and that's it.

NOW for my question:
seeing as you have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by believing and you have so much to lose and nothing to gain by not believing, why is it that so many people are atheists? I just don't get it? :confused:
This is truly puzzling for me since people have no proof either way, it makes much more sense to believe and I haven't even mentioned all the other indications (note I do not say evidence) that there is a God.
So any atheists care to shed some light on the matter?

I'm not trying to give this "nothing to lose" as a reason for believing I'm just saying if nothing else makes you believe, what do you think about this post?

my thoughts continue near the bottom of page 3 in the bloody long post if you still interested :D

[ 01-22-2003, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

you can't just pick up faith, you need to actually believe in it. If I would stand by a certain religion I would need to believe in it, otherwise I would just be a hypocrite. As beneficial as it would sound to just adhere to a religion, thats all you would be doing is adhering. Part of most religions is that you truly believe in it, which an athiest would never be able to do, therefore adhering to a religion just because, would be a waste of time for an athiest anyway. even in christian religion, one can say they believe in God and jesus and all that, because they are hoping to get into heaven, but if they really don't believe they are still not going to get in. Basically you can't force faith.

I'm an atheist, if that's what you wanna call me. I don't need proof if there's a god or not. You know why ? Cause i simply don't care. I have better things to do than waste time thinking about things like that.

Azrael I know what you're saying but what I mean is if you give it a little faith then you will either find out more and then get more faith etc. or you won't and then you've at least covered yourself and looked into it. Either way, you're not forcing it.

Johnny - you're not an atheist then as they are firm in their non-belief. You just don't care. You have better things to do? Like what? I can't see anything more important than figuring out why we are here. If you haven't figured it out or are not trying to, you might as well be dead as you have no reason to exist. That's just my opinion.

<font color="cyan">I take it this stemmed from the Lord Kathen/Yorrick argument?

Not being funny, but once again I think your question is silly. I am not an Atheist, but I am not religious. I posted my feeligns on the Incomprehensible Beauty thread.

People don't decide to believe in God just because they have nothing to lose. They believe in God because they have Faith, and that it has come to them somehow.

If they don't have Faith, they don't believe in God.

And another thing is time. I agree with what Johhny said sorta, I have other things to think about. If one day i wake and something happens, and I "feel" god within me, (which I hope will happen but I seriously doubt), thats great, and then I'll dedicate time to then.

You cant find God, he finds you.</font>

I just wanted to say that this is a very dangerous subject to bring up (I made the mistake of bringing it up and making a fool of myself *and* getting a migrane [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) Also I have one question (that i may later regret even asking) What makes people think that all the major religions in the world have different gods? Please, I'm very eager to know why. (And if anyone says "Because the muslims worship Alla" then you obviously havent used your brains and figured out that that is the Arabic name for God)

<font color="cyan">Dude, your cross referencing two totally different topics here. Believing in God is nothing to do with "why we are here".

There is a connection between God making us (supposedly), but why we are here is more science based. In the eyes of God, to spread the good word and be nice? (correct me if I'm wrong, I only ever read the bible in class.....so i aint read so much).

Or, like me, you can believe it is to be born, reproduce, die. That is the meaning of life. To preserve your kind. Same for every species. Every living thing has this in common.

Its just humans stray, and can get drunk and shit in the meantime. :D </font>

Vaskez, i HAVE been wondering why i'm here sometimes, but only when i was stoned. I think it's all just a waste of time, and like i said, i have better things to do. And i also think there is no god, so that DOES make me an atheist. But then again, even if there was a god, i don't care.

<font color="cyan">Why do Christians believe in God? Because the scriptures describe him as God of everything, one being. Just what people wrote him down as. When say Peter or Paul or John or whoever was writing about God for later years to come, they never saw him, they just decided he was a greater bieng in human form. He could have said he had the head of a dog or anything :D

Other scriptures from different religions just wrote it down as many different Gods, in different forms. Dunno why really.

I reckon its just Christians were boring, and the Greek, Eqyptians, Norse were just cool and imaginative!</font>

<font color="cyan">Been there dude! Makes you think some crazy shit! The one I keep getting is : why did I leave this ex? Why did I do that with this ex? Makes you think about some weird shit!</font>