Whats the worst that can happen if I do not believe in god?

Agent smith is wrong- dead wrong. He's probably the most evil representation of anything that really exists.... You would be wrong to say that he has any direct representation towards God.

I would bet your middle nipple that agent smith is right.
 
New Atheist said:
Between the existence of god and the belief in any given religion are a long series of questions and answers. For example, if a god does exist, did he intentionally create us... if Yes, then the next questions is why - an answer which he/she/it should equip us with. If No, then there should be no question of worship, since we are an "accident' with equal probablity of being here versus not. and the questions go on and on. And if you follow that all the way down to the existence of religion, it starts to seem highly improbable that there is a God who intentionally created us and wants us to worship him while we kill each other defending each's religion.... lex parsimoniae - the concept of religion and by extension god, is convoluted.
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What exactly do you want, in relation to the topic in your OP?

Is there any unease about having left the faith? Any sense that the leaving is not justified enough?


I suggest to read this book - Healing spiritual abuse and religious addiction.
This one is written from a Catholic perspective (since this is your background too), I can suggest a few from a Protestant perspective if you'd like.

I am not suggesting this to "bring you back to the faith," but just to understand better what sometimes (often even) goes on in religious communities when people are being pushed into believing and doing things, how much is taken for granted.
I think understanding these things can ease the doubts and pains that one might have about one's (past) faith.
 
Emil said:
Also the conception of heaven is very bizarre to me.
I know that we humans are very different. What is good for me may be not good for others. So in a unique haven, will find unhappy people. Or for each person, God will create a properly haven?
But in this own heaven will be alone? The others will be "holograms"?
(If my greatest wish is to be a champion, what happens to others who want the same thing? If I want to have sex with beautiful girls, what happens to girls' desire?)
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Yes, these are some of the cunundrums one runs into if one sets out to believe in God for selfish reasons. :eek:
 
EmptyHeadOfChi said:
When asking questions on religion it's best to seek answers from people of faith.
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Why, when there coming from a basis of the subjective imagination, and bias.
EmptyHeadOfChi said:
Like any other field of knowledge it's best to go to the right people, don't ask a plumber to do your electrics,
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Not so, a bad analogy, plumbers don't come from a basis of subjective plumbing, but they are biased toward there own objective skill set, plus they know electrics need the right objective skill set. There is a huge difference between a biased subjective basis, and a non biased objective basis, What skill set has the religious person with his automatic bias and his subjective imagination, would you go to a christian for advice on allah (PissBeUponHim).
EmptyHeadOfChi said:
Like any other field of knowledge it's best to go to the right people, don't ask a plumber to do your electrics, dont ask a biology teacher about physics,
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Your making the mistake of comparing the subjective with objective trained skill set.
EmptyHeadOfChi said:
dont ask an atheist about god.
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As the atheist is coming from a solid logical and objective basis and has no bias toward any particular religion, he is a much better authority on religions per se, than any religious person who is based in is own subjective imagination and biased to his own version of said religion.
 
EmptyForceOfChi said:
When does having desires fulfilled imply they are all given in 1 automatic instant?, this isn't what scriptures say it's something you have invisioned and put forth from your imited understanding of the scrolls and books.
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Maybe you're right. Can you give a very short description of heaven?
 
Emil said:
There are more? :eek: The one that you think you know best.
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Random example.

The seventh heaven would be the largest realm with highest population, the lowest rank of people in heaven will have more than 10 times the Earth, they will be allowed to visit God once a week to ask for any thing they desire.
 
Hey Signal, Thank you that is helpful.

While I am here let me just say that I am not having any doubts about not believing. How could I, one either believes or does not. Anything else is academic. However, what I am trying to source for is if there is something beyond my reasoning ability which has eluded my process of thinking. Nothing thus far has led me to believe so.

Here is a recurring thought that I have: the evidence - demonstrable evidence - is that the bible which every believer refers to, is written by man... A Roman. It seems that with the empire in shambles he used the bible to spread the greatest empire - the Roman Catholic empire. So its pretty certain that the religion is false and anyone claiming that the only way to God (if there is souch a thing) is thru him deserves to be crucified. However, the bible doesn't glorify the existence of god it glorified the worship of a Jerusalem man. Does it not? Look at the mass, does it worship god or a man? So lets take one thing as fact - the catholic faith is ... well off the mark. Now if that is so, then the religion that follows that and believes in the return of Christ must also be false. So thats 2 religions out of the park.

The old testament is full of horror making the original Abrahamic religion scarry at the least - so thats the third religion thats gone! Then there are the other multi-theistic deities and other asian religions which started as philosophies.... Anyway, with extreme respect to all of them, I don't buy one iota of any of it.

The universe as we live in it and what little we are exposed to and enjoy is so much more beautiful than whatever description of heaven any of these books have to offer - including the 70 virgins theory - so I am an atheist because I want to live my life here and now not sitting on my patutie waiting to live life when i am worm food. I am an atheist because mere logic I poses at this point allows me to deduce that a god doesn't exist and that i am here by chance - which makes me really fortunate and I should live every moment to its fullest potential. i choose to live life happy and without hurting another - not because I am guilted to it, but because I have better things to do. I am an atheist because i want to teach my kids demonstrable truth - I cant do that with religion and I have no interest to raise them in a world of guilt and obligation. Free Will Rules!!!
 
New Atheist said:
Hey Signal, Thank you that is helpful.

While I am here let me just say that I am not having any doubts about not believing. How could I, one either believes or does not. Anything else is academic. However, what I am trying to source for is if there is something beyond my reasoning ability which has eluded my process of thinking. Nothing thus far has led me to believe so.

Here is a recurring thought that I have: the evidence - demonstrable evidence - is that the bible which every believer refers to, is written by man... A Roman. It seems that with the empire in shambles he used the bible to spread the greatest empire - the Roman Catholic empire. So its pretty certain that the religion is false and anyone claiming that the only way to God (if there is souch a thing) is thru him deserves to be crucified. However, the bible doesn't glorify the existence of god it glorified the worship of a Jerusalem man. Does it not? Look at the mass, does it worship god or a man? So lets take one thing as fact - the catholic faith is ... well off the mark. Now if that is so, then the religion that follows that and believes in the return of Christ must also be false. So thats 2 religions out of the park.

The old testament is full of horror making the original Abrahamic religion scarry at the least - so thats the third religion thats gone! Then there are the other multi-theistic deities and other asian religions which started as philosophies.... Anyway, with extreme respect to all of them, I don't buy one iota of any of it.

The universe as we live in it and what little we are exposed to and enjoy is so much more beautiful than whatever description of heaven any of these books have to offer - including the 70 virgins theory - so I am an atheist because I want to live my life here and now not sitting on my patutie waiting to live life when i am worm food. I am an atheist because mere logic I poses at this point allows me to deduce that a god doesn't exist and that i am here by chance - which makes me really fortunate and I should live every moment to its fullest potential. i choose to live life happy and without hurting another - not because I am guilted to it, but because I have better things to do. I am an atheist because i want to teach my kids demonstrable truth - I cant do that with religion and I have no interest to raise them in a world of guilt and obligation. Free Will Rules!!!
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"Here and now" won't last very long you will be dead soon, and one day the human race will be extinct so any history or mark you leave will be worthless.

We are all on a direct course for the grave death is a promise.
 
EmptyForceOfChi said:
Random example.

The seventh heaven would be the largest realm with highest population, the lowest rank of people in heaven will have more than 10 times the Earth, they will be allowed to visit God once a week to ask for any thing they desire.
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In my opinion, unfortunately for the man no matter how much he has, matter how much he has in comparison with others.
A man in the jungle which is rich in comparison to those around him he feels himself rich, while a man in an advanced society,
which have 10 times more than the rich man of the jungle, but has less in comparison to those around him, he feels himself poor.
So "the lowest rank of people in heaven" have in vain " more than 10 times the Earth" because they still feel the last.
 
Emil said:
In my opinion, unfortunately for the man no matter how much he has, matter how much he has in comparison with others.
A man in the jungle which is rich in comparison to those around him he feels himself rich, while a man in an advanced society,
which have 10 times more than the rich man of the jungle, but has less in comparison to those around him, he feels himself poor.
So "the lowest rank of people in heaven" have in vain " more than 10 times the Earth" because they still feel the last.
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Rich-ness is a comparison of wealth and happiness.
 
EmptyForceOfChi said:
"Here and now" won't last very long you will be dead soon, and one day the human race will be extinct so any history or mark you leave will be worthless.

We are all on a direct course for the grave death is a promise.
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Unfortunately you are right and many can not live with this feeling
For that I am not trying to convince him not to believe in God, with few exceptions.
(maybe I should give up and these few exceptions)
 
EmptyForceOfChi said:
"Here and now" won't last very long you will be dead soon, and one day the human race will be extinct so any history or mark you leave will be worthless.

We are all on a direct course for the grave death is a promise.
Click to expand...

YES YES... you catch my point now. :) I will be dead soon. and I now realize that and I am glad for it because it forces me to realize the here and now is important. it makes me realize that time is fleeting and waiting for the grave is a pipe dream. The human race will be as extinct as the dinosaurs - in the sense whats left - the ones that haven't been killed - would have evolved to higher levels - I agree.

perhaps you are right and it will be worthless - but at least i would have enjoyed doing it. But i am so glad you get my piont - this is my realization too - we all die eventually, why waste life on some unproven 'faith?'
 
I believe in a materialist explanation of god. I believe people believe in god because the phenomena impacts them personally. I would guess the concept has an impact on the unconscious mind in general, and the collective unconscious in particular. It gives us access to parts of the brain that are not usually conscious. When someone experiences that, they have data for the effect. The religious zealot can achieve drive simply because they get the unconscious to cooperate. This drive scares the atheists because they can only go into shallow unconscious water.

If you looked at a religious achievement like the pyramids, even with limited science and education, they could rival modern engineering techniques. That was because the main CPU of the brain was accessible. The ego can still be an ancient hick based on masks and pretense, as long as the CPU is generating output. Rituals were used to get the deeper parts of the brain in gear but as times changes so did the requirements of the CPU.
 
Emil said:
Unfortunately you are right and many can not live with this feeling
For that I am not trying to convince him not to believe in God, with few exceptions.
(maybe I should give up and these few exceptions)
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Those who cannot live with this feeling are lost and without Faith, It goes against every cell in your body and your survival instinct to tell yourself you wil die and never exist again. There is no lasting content with Atheism only fleeting joys and temporary highs.

Peace.
 
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