Regardless of whether you actually believe in God or not, do you think that believing in God is a good thing?

i.e. do you think that people who believe in God are lucky, because they have a purpose/meaning to their life, regardless of whether he/she/it really DOES exist

or

do you think people who believe in God are complete idiots and are so unlucky to be so stupid.

personally i vote yes, altho thats probably because i'm christian anyway. lol.

ESPECIALLY comment if you do not believe in god/are not sure, but still answered yes.

come to think of it, this poll is going to [probably] be slightly one-sided, on yes, because all the believers will vote yes, but only some atheists will vote no whereas some may vote yes. hmmmm....

oh well, it seems like it'll be an interesting topic anyways, so i'll post it.

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If it helps people get through their lives, sure, why not.

It's only a problem when that belief starts taking control, i.e forcing itself down other people's throats, starting wars, etc.


Do I? I always assumed there was something 'up there' but not that fits in with any of the current religions image of god(s).

I dont beleive in God, but I guess it's nice for people to feel like they have meaning.

Religion is not meant for young people.

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It's good to believe in something - whether it's God, Allah, Flying Spaghetti Monster or Boogeyman.

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Current avatar features Badou from Dogs.

I think the idea of God gives people the incentive to do good.

Whatever, or whoever, gets people to do good is alright with me.

The thing I don't like is when people use the name of their "Holy Being" to do justify their clearly evil intentions..

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"“That's the difference between me and the rest of the world!
Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!” "

Mmm, I think that acualy believing in something so unreal as a god is a little
laughable, but if it gives hope to some, so be it..
The problem is that it is never enough for many to only believe, they go and creat ridicules religions that only harm and bring no good.


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Hrodulf and Bjornolfr, you will not be forgotten.

And if the world were black and white,
you would be my rainbow in shades of grey.

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If I had a fantasy self, it'd be a tentacle monster.

Granted, but we still have no right to insult what anyone truly believes in and stands for... No matter how ridiculous it is to us, It's ridiculously real to them

P.S. I don't believe in God either.

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"“That's the difference between me and the rest of the world!
Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!” "

For the average person I think it is good to beleive in God, it gives people a sence of hope and makes them be good.
On the other hand look how many wars have either been started or fueled by religion, millions of innocent people have been killed just for beleiving in God.

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I've got to burn your eyes.

I do not believe in God or gods.

I believe that God does give meaning and purpose to life for some people.
I think it is also true that it gives some people initiative to be good, and do good things. (I'll refer to these people as "good people")

(I'm not trying to offend anyone here, I'm stating my beliefs)
However, I, personally, would not want to be motivated by what-may-be or delusions.
I consider myself an existentialist and believe that I must find my own meaning for life and do not believe that believing in God is good overall.
Even if believing in God creates "good people", they are not innately Good (righteous, honorable, kind, caring, etc.). Good people were going to do and be good, and evil people were going to do evil and be evil regardless. I believe that "good people" only do good because of fear the consequence of not being good and therefore not live as themselves.
This is g,ood and bad. Good because it is good for society, bad because it creates facades.
In addition, other dimensions must be considered. Such as religious wars, restriction of freedom, obstruction progress, etc. Sure, these things are caused by extremists but if there wasn't a concept of God, there would not be such extremists.
I do acknowledges that religions have helped the human kind get organized and progress enormously, but I believe that they are or soon will be unnecessary.

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"Existence precedes and rules essence." -Sartre
"When I do good, I feel good; When I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion." -Lincoln
"You can either hold yourself up to the unrealistic standards of others, or ignore them and concentrate on being happy with yourself as you are." -Jacques

I recall reading this one article by some European professor who stated that without people having believed in God in the past, there would be no standard morals in the present. Thoughts?

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Believing in a higher power is, in my opinion, a good and bad thing. Some people need a rock to cling to in hard times, if it happens to be their faith then more power to them. But when it is taken to such an extreme that one believes he has the power to take another's life in the name of his god then it moves from what religion was intended to just another excuse to gain power. I am honestly not sure what I believe at this point and time, but organized religion, to me, looks more like a way to gain power than a way to salvation.

@SyaoranX: I think that even without religion our moral standards would still be here today.


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Familiarity, the first myth of reality; what you know best, you observe least.

@SyaoranX: I don't think that is necessarily true, because even before religions which incorporate teachings about morals there were some basic norms in small communities. They forbade killing your own communitys members, stealing from them and of course doing excessive violence against them. Then there were the Code of Hammurabi and other laws later. Due to those laws and norms there would be standard morals in the present even if people hadn't believed in God in the past. And also if there hadn't been religions people would definitely have started to use other ideologies which provide guidelines for everyday life and standart morals would have stemmed from them. However, those standart morals would be different (maybe a little, maybe a lot) from the standart morals nowadays.

First post here btw.

IMHO it's better to believe in yourself then in an imaginary friend.



That's silly, gods don't invent enthical code, humans do. If not, then why in all religions around the world are mostly the same principles included - it's bad to steal, it's bad to kill (someone). Gods were the ones with whome the ethical code was strenghtened, and not set in action.

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"Computer games don't affect kids....
I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."
/Kristian Wilson, Nintendo Inc, 1989

Cant say its good or bad its a personal choice, everyone have their beliefs.

Personally I dont believe in God.simply I didnt found a reason in my life to believe in a God. I dont mean to insult anyone so dont get me wrong, but i've seen people that look for the meaning of life in the figure of a God, i respect their beliefs but I dont like that I think that takes away the fun from life, I want to live and found that by myself. I actually think God now and in ancient times were the answer to things they couldn't understand, thats what i believe in, Gods are made by humans IMHO.
I think believing in a God, can make people minds to close to other ideas that can benefit people's life. Also I don't think possible that a God makes people good and bad, people choose the path they want to live on and being themselves (good or bad) is better than being just good because of fear of consequences as Vyk said.

@SyaoranX:
I don't think moral would be exactly the same, but i dont think it would be an immoral chaos either. Just different. Humans are and were humans before, now and then. "God" wasnt there since moral was invented, but humans were there

Last edited by SHTensai at 4:10 pm, Jan 12 2008

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