Targetted toward atheists

[strongbad]

The only thing that makes me (and most religious people) believe in any sort of god is the idea of an afterlife. I don't think that I could live my life knowing that there was nothing left once I died. I'm not calling out atheists and questioning their why they believe what they believe or anything, I'm just curious as to how they can go on living knowing that nothing is left after they die.

[Hippopo]

Ummz..  I believe there is an "ultimate being" (a god), but I don't believe in an everlasting self.  I guess nonexistence just doesn't scare me.  After all, we didn't exist before birth, and I was fine with it back then.

[Geno]

I believe that I'll rot in the ground and eventually be grave robbed

[Daddy]

I believe that you stop existing and your brain just turns off: no afterlife at all.

What I don't get is how people can "only believe in God because *x*". If you are forcing yourself to believe in a deity to avoid something(fear of no afterlife) do you really believe in that deity, or are you just deluding yourself to avoid an uncomfortable reality?

It's similar to I don't understand how people can just start believing in God because of Pascal's wager where a "oh if i believe in god and am wrong nothing happens. if i don't believe and i'm wrong i go to hell" mentality takes place.

I can't just start believing in something because it's nice or convenient.

[Hippopo]

I believe that you stop existing and your brain just turns off: no afterlife at all.

What I don't get is how people can "only believe in God because *x*". If you are forcing yourself to believe in a deity to avoid something(fear of no afterlife) do you really believe in that deity, or are you just deluding yourself to avoid an uncomfortable reality?

It's similar to I don't understand how people can just start believing in God because of Pascal's wager where a "oh if i believe in god and am wrong nothing happens. if i don't believe and i'm wrong i go to hell" mentality takes place.

I can't just start believing in something because it's nice or convenient.

Sometimes the "x" is a good enough reason to believe (depending on the "x" of course).

I'm more confused as to why people choose not to believe simply due to a lack of physical evidence.  It's not good to jump to conclusions either way. 

[guff]

I'm more confused as to why people choose not to believe simply due to a lack of physical evidence. 

strawman

It's not good to jump to conclusions either way. 

if god does exist though you're screwed for not worshipping him anyways 

[j o e i n c]

well if this is all we've got then we've got to make it the best it can be

bro

[Travis]

buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut if you only believe in god for an afterlife wouldn't that make you a bad christian? then you wouldn't be able to go to heaven at all

[Daddy]

Sometimes the "x" is a good enough reason to believe (depending on the "x" of course).

Still doesn't work.  Just because I deeply want to believe that if I throw a penny in a well every day that my friend won't be dead anymore doesn't provide a valid reason to believe in it since I honestly wouldn't believe it myself no matter how nice it sounds.

I'm more confused as to why people choose not to believe simply due to a lack of physical evidence.  It's not good to jump to conclusions either way. 

So I'm guessing you believe in unicorns, gnomes, fairies,  mole people, magic, witches, Zeus, Krishna, the flying spaghetti monster, Xenu, Atlantis, Dragons, Thor, Griffins, Chimeras, Vampires, Zombies, Syrictæ, Sirens, Mermaids, Mercury, Venus, Athena, the Hydra, Orion, trolls, ogres, ghouls, orcs, nymphs, elves, kraken, centaurs, minotaurs, Amomongo, Almas, Big Foot, Stink Ape, Bunyip, Hitler Clones, Nazi moon bases, space brothers, goatman, chupacabra, mothman, aliens, men in black, dover demon, jersey devil, and the yeti? I mean so what if there may be a lack of physical evidence and in most cases more evidence than there is for a God.

[CutLess]

Pretty much what JMV said.  Through a number of chemical reactions in our brains, we are able to form the idea of souls, if you will.  It's pretty much like what you said, David.  If it were not for our somewhat strange sense of souls, no one would seriously consider the idea of gods.

But even if there is an afterlife and I do go to hell, it won't be entirely awful -- at least all of the good musicians will be there.

[Nyerp]

what would you do in the afterlife

[strongbad]

what would you do in the afterlife

Idk chill on clouds and drink cocacola

That also brings up the possibility of an afterlife in general, and how boring it could get. Honestly it would be insane to be alive for all of infinity. You'd get sick of it eventually..

[Det in F♯ Major]

What I don't get is how people can "only believe in God because *x*". If you are forcing yourself to believe in a deity to avoid something(fear of no afterlife) do you really believe in that deity, or are you just deluding yourself to avoid an uncomfortable reality?

I strongly agree with this and therefore believe strongbad won't have a very happy afterlife if he continues to believe this way. That's just taking advantage of Him. It's like telling your parents you still believe in Santa Claus just so you can get a few extra presents.

If you only believe in God for an afterlife, you seriously need to take a look at your religion a lot more closely; believing in God solely for thinking He's going to let you into Heaven and not keeping up with the other parts of your faith isn't going to cut it, sweetheart, plain and simple.

[strongbad]

I strongly agree with this and therefore believe strongbad won't have a very happy afterlife if he continues to believe this way. That's just taking advantage of Him. It's like telling your parents you still believe in Santa Claus just so you can get a few extra presents.

If you only believe in God for an afterlife, you seriously need to take a look at your religion a lot more closely; believing in God solely for thinking He's going to let you into Heaven and not keeping up with the other parts of your faith isn't going to cut it, sweetheart, plain and simple.

That's the thing. I'm not even that religious. I go to church like once every few months, but I do believe in god for the sole reason of there being an afterlife. If I die and there isn't an afterlife? Oh well I'll be dead and I would be disappointed or anything since I'll be DEAD.

I just can't go through my life knowing that there is nothing coming up after I die.

[Hippopo]

strawman

Your logic teacher did you a huge disservice because you're not recognizing fallacies correctly.  I would only be committing the straw man if I was using that statement to argue against JMV's original statement.  I wasn't.  I was merely bringing up a new topic (which was not a method of "disproving anyone") because I wanted better clarification on this new subject which JMV provided.

It's colloquially referred to as "moving the scene."

Still doesn't work.  Just because I deeply want to believe that if I throw a penny in a well every day that my friend won't be dead anymore doesn't provide a valid reason to believe in it since I honestly wouldn't believe it myself no matter how nice it sounds.

That's not what I meant.  A possible "X" would be a person seeing a vision of God.  They only believe because they supposedly saw him.  To me, that would be a better reason to believe than the simple fear of no afterlife.

Like the fear, though, there is only one factor that contributes to their belief.  Does that make better sense?  All I'm saying is there could be a "good" reason to believe even if they only have one reason.

So I'm guessing you believe in unicorns, gnomes, fairies,  mole people, magic, witches, Zeus, Krishna, the flying spaghetti monster, Xenu, Atlantis, Dragons, Thor, Griffins, Chimeras, Vampires, Zombies, Syrictæ, Sirens, Mermaids, Mercury, Venus, Athena, the Hydra, Orion, trolls, ogres, ghouls, orcs, nymphs, elves, kraken, centaurs, minotaurs, Amomongo, Almas, Big Foot, Stink Ape, Bunyip, Hitler Clones, Nazi moon bases, space brothers, goatman, chupacabra, mothman, aliens, men in black, dover demon, jersey devil, and the yeti? I mean so what if there may be a lack of physical evidence and in most cases more evidence than there is for a God.

I'm not saying I do or don't believe in them...  Just like with God.

I just had this conversation with my Philosophy professor, actually.  There's only one way to disprove the existence of anything, and that's through logic.  It's interesting because you can actually disprove God with logic, but that's only assuming we know all the characteristics of God.. Which we don't.

And because there might be fundamentalists Christians who argue against me, I'll go ahead and disprove the "all powerful God" right now...

God is All Powerful, and he can therefore do anything.  If this is true, he should be able to create a rock so big, he cannot lift it.  However, if he's all powerful, he should also be able to lift any object.  Therefore, he can't create a rock bigger than his limits.  If God can't create everything, he is not all powerful.

This is a paradox...

The Christian philosophers got out of it by saying that God cannot break reason, but I think it's a cop out.  If God were real, then I don't think he can be "all powerful."  Perhaps even God has limits.

And to keep things interesting, the Greek word for being has a definition similar to "that which is able to stand."  Or put simply, that which has it's own limits.  If God doesn't have limits, he can't be a being according to this definition...

BUT!  Back on subject!  I'm not going to say I believe in those creatures, but I'm also not going to commit to my disbelief.