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The Atheist’s Wager is as follows: It states that you should live a good life and be a nice person, but leave religion alone. If God is loving and kind, he will forgive you for not believing in him and reward you in the afterlife. If God punishes you despite having been a good person all your life then god is unjust and you shouldn’t worship him. The unjust situation is illustrated below.
Does the wager make sense to you? Please comment.
That sounds like an agnostic's wager, not an atheist's.
I am an atheist because religions are simply outdated fairy-tales that only a complete imbecile would follow. Science is the only way forward. Science, knowledge and logical thought are the keys to a better society.
I am atheist because I have already seen to much scientific data to even try believing in a greater being. However, I am theorizing that there are two main types of atheists; those who turn to science and are accepting of religion, and those who try mercilessly to take away religion. This is, however, just an atheists opinion and is not meant to offend any one. I apologize if my words are taken harshly.
Honestly, this is like working in an office or having a cubicle as your workplace. I have no experience with this sort of thinking.
I have done terrible, unforgivable things in the name of survival. All were perfectly legal and all were morally reprehensible. That I even had to do them is absolute, total proof that there is no gawd.
So you see, it is way, way too late to 'live a good life and be a nice person' for nothing I do can undo what I had already done by 19.
Imagine you're working in a restaurant with swinging doors in and out of the kitchen. Now imagine you don't know if another waiter/waitress is on the other side with a tray full of dishes. Do you go through without announcing or do you check first?
The same holds true in regards to God. I don't know if God exists or not, but I still pray from time to time, just in case there's someone there.
atheists usually know there is no heaven but I see them all the time praying that there is no hell....I mainly go by the ten commandments ,,,saw to many when I was young go to church every sunday and as soon as they were out the door they were screwing their neighbor over or actually screwing them.
That's called being a dick, prick, bitch, asshole, no account mofo..take your pick...got nothing to do with religion...you got fake, pretentious dickbreaths all over, atheists, agnostics, religious fanatics, priests, nuns, etc. Usually brought up that way, some born that way.
Firstly, what you described sounds more like an agnostic point of view to me than a truly atheist point of view. From what I understand, true atheists really don't believe there is anything... no maybes or ifs. I think THAT kind of thinking usually is because that person is upset at religion for some reason or upset at their life because a lot of atheists like to spend time bashing religion.
The point of view that you are describing (which I think is a little different than an atheist point of view) is logical. It kind of makes sense. There are some religions that really believe that if you don't worship in their faith that you won't be rewarded or something, but that's not all religions. Especially in modern day. I don't really think it's about trying to be forgiven or not. I think an all loving God is very forgiving. Being religious and being spiritual can be a wonderful thing for people in a lot of ways.
I think it can be individual though. I don't think that everyone has to see God in the same way. If you want to be a Christian or a Jew or a Taoist or a Hindu... or just spiritual even I don't think it makes a huge difference. But just something where you can step back and look beyond all the distractions of such a busy world.
I think a lot of atheists say that they are atheist because they don't want to feel like they are being controlled by anything or anyone. They don't want to deal with "worrying" about being religious. But I think once you can see through the ritualistic stuff and whatnot and realize that the basis of God is not about control or fear, a lot opens up.
Hi Ellenna!
I'm sorry if I offended you. I don't look down on you if you are an atheist. I'm sure you are a wonderful person.
Just follow me on this thought for a second. You said atheists use their brains, implying that atheism is associated with correct logic. But atheism means the belief in there being no God. And I ask you... how do you know?
Probably the most "logical" of any belief is being an agnostic. Maybe there is a God, and maybe there isn't? But how could I know? There's a great big Sky up there and there's lots of things I can't see in this world... maybe something's there? But I'm just an innocent human being going about my business, right?
Basically except for being an agnostic, ANY belief requires a leap of faith. Whether you believe in God or you don't or whatever you believe about the unseen. There is not yet (and may not ever be) a way to prove or disprove.
You didn't offend me at all and you're right I am a VERY wonderful person ....
It's no true that any belief requires a leap of faith: science doesn't, it relies on research and logic and proof.
What's more, as a number of well-known atheists have pointed out, everyone is an atheist in relation to some god or goddess or other: I assume you're an atheist as far as Odin, Minerva, Zeus and so on are concerned? It's not up to me to prove there is no god, it's up to people who say there is one to prove it and I'm still waiting for that to happen without people resorting to faith as a proof of the existence of anything
Every belief requires a leap of faith. :) but I'm not really going to comment on your view on science.
As far as your other comment, the difference between what you said and what I think is that I think that all those gods and goddesses are different expressions of the same concept. I don't think that they "don't exist"... I just think that they are a different way of expressing a bigger thing.
I died ..went to heaven...met 72 virgins..all for me? I'm not Muslim..o.k. I'll bite, I'm easy...bring em on...damn! ..all 72 were virgins for a reason....smelliest ..rotten..never washed..green goo oozing out their cats...many cuss words emanating from my vomit filled mouth....heart attack..(its da big one. I'm coming Elizabeth... Wait I'm already dead..how?)...falling back to earth..apparently a massive heart attack after you're already dead and in heaven actually brings you back to life...well I'm back now...now what?