Friday 11 July 2008

Belief = Morality?


OK, so god is going to torture me for eternity for not believing in him, right? But why? Am I acting immorally for my disbelief?

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that I am deciding not to believe in god. Is this an immoral stance to take? No, of course not. We are talking about a belief in a factual matter, namely the factual existence or non-existence of god. The statement, "I believe/disbelieve in god/allah/Santa Claus/Thor/Zeus/Baal/FSM/invisible, pink unicorns," is a factual statement on what your view of the evidence (or non-evidence really) of these myths is. This is not a statement that lends itself to a moral judgement. If all non-Xians are wrong, and god does exist, then we are guilty of no more than simply not having all the evidence or not reading the evidence correctly.

So, why would god torture me for eternity for making an error in reading the "evidence" of world? Is god really too stupid to understand the difference between a statement or an action of a factual nature and one of a moral nature? I think the answer to that question is that he's either too stupid or he doesn't care. This, once again, leads to the conclusion that if god exists, he is surely not omni-benevolent.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to put myself out here a little. I am doing a little see-sawing with the old endoctrination. I have some really good days where I put aside all that crap about god that I learned; but then I lapsed back in to "talking" to god, only to be fucked again by this "thinking".

If anyone would be willing, I really need a mentor/coach (whatever label) to email sometimes to help me stay on the straight path. I would be consciencious about not being a nuisance.

Festes said...

If you really hate jesus come to my blog and show me how much you hate him.http://cursejesuschrist.blogspot.com

Nobody said...

Christianity uses fear to keep it's hens in the cage.

Religion in my opinion is an extension of Government control & that's why it was first established when gathering the Bible by the Romans.
It's a way to control people's motives without police.
Make them feel guilty for not being mental fit to comply with order.

Anonymous said...

Well ... so there you have it. In actuality, no one here is any different than the xtians. They turn their backs on you, folks here do the same.

GCT said...

Acid,
I didn't want to respond earlier because I knew I would be out of town and have limited time.

"I'm going to put myself out here a little. I am doing a little see-sawing with the old endoctrination."

You either believe in god or you don't. It sounds to me like you believe in god.

"If anyone would be willing, I really need a mentor/coach (whatever label) to email sometimes to help me stay on the straight path."

That's not how it works IMO. This isn't like a religion where you look for guidance from some authority to tell you what to believe or not believe (or think for that matter). I'm not going to cheerlead you into atheism in order to gain some convert, because I don't believe it's the right thing for either of us. As I said, you either believe in god or you don't. It sounds to me like you believe in god, but find that god to be a horribly sadistic being that is out to make your life miserable. This is incompatible with the vast majority of the conceptions of god that exist, in that most people believe god is all-loving and omni-benevolent. That said, if a god were to exist, your conception of this god is one of the more likely IMO. The thing you have to ask yourself is whether you really have evidence for this god or not.

Anonymous said...

"This isn't like a religion where you look for guidance from some authority to tell you what to believe or not believe (or think for that matter)."

You misread me; I don't want to be told what to believe. I just need someone who is non xtian to discuss with logical reasoning, the conflicts I encounter.

GCT said...

Acid,
I'm not sure what you are looking for. Your initial post talked about needed someone to "help [you] stay on the straight path." Now you wish to discuss with logical reasoning the conflicts you encounter? I'm thought I knew what the fist statement meant, which is why I replied as I did. I don't know, however, what the second statement means. Can you provide an example perhaps?

The Grenadian Freethinker said...

Why I hate Jesus, you said this 'I think the answer to that question is that he's either too stupid or he doesn't care',
I will not say that God is stupid. However, he doesn't care. Why? Because he is the creation of religious people who don't care about anything but their control over other people who are stupid. He doesn't exist but the people do.