which is easier? believeing or not believing?

Question

being an aithiest makes you think very practically, and everything can be explained with science, right? but wouldnt that be boring? believing makes you have some kind of values and beliefs, and although some of it is far-fetched, wouldnt it be easier to deal with things by simply saying "that is how god intended for things to happen."?

Answer 1

who the hell gives a rat's rear end,I don't give a damn that's for sure.

Answer 2

You know, I don't really believe in a personal God, with his eye on the sparrow and all that. I think there is some kind of creative force, bigger than me. But, someone I can upload all my problems on to? That doesn't work for me. Is it easier not to be a Christian, or member of another organized religion? In this society, not especially. People make a lot of assumptions about our beliefs. It would surely be easier to blend into society by paying lip service to the majority religious practice. Not that it is anything like other places or times where or when being different was a death sentence.

It would also be easier, I think, to be able to "give all your problems to God, " as I hear my Christian friends say. There have surely been times when that would have come in handy. But, what I have come to figure out is that you cannot fake faith - you either have it or you don't.

Now, whether this means I am scientific and don't have values or beliefs is a bit of a broad brush to paint religious beliefs with. I think that having values and being ethical makes the world a much better place. Science without ethics leads to bad scientific process and terrible results. Being good to each other is obvious. In a lot of ways, it goes with science: after all, "every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction" sounds alot like "what comes around goes around" or the golden rule.

My spouse is a scientist and many of the scientists he works with are very strong Christians or Moslems, HIndus or Buddhists. Do their religious beliefs cause their science to be faulty? Not that I am aware. Therefore, does being a scientist and not following a religion make one questionable morally? I don't think so.

In many ways, it is harder to not believe.

Answer 3

Atheists DO have ethics and morals. We are not without values, our own beliefs (if any), and our own spirituality. We get them from our elders growing up and from learning experience.

Ummmm, I do find the _majority_ of my answers from science, but not all of them. I find my other answers from the various religions of the world. It does NOT mean I believe in the prophets, teachers as a deity.

I much rather face the reality that the universe does not care about us, does not care if we die tomorrow from an asteroid impact. The universe is a very cold place and it won't "give us our happiness", and I much rather make my own happiness while I am still alive. :-) Since the universe does not "care", then things happen that are well beyond our control. I just deal with it and move on. _I_ make my own happiness, joy, the meaning of life, and life experiences. No deity gives me that. :-)

Great question, actually.

Answer 4

Maybe you just don't know enough about science. I suggest you go to places like www.space.com and keep up with some of the latest discoveries in astronomy. Find out what's happening in the fields of evolutionary, biological, and medical research and then see if you are still bored.

Yes, it is much easier to say "Goddidit!" to every complex thing that you don't understand, but THAT would be boring. To never be able to discover new things or explore the world around us would be a great injustice to the human race. Everything you use in your everyday life is the result of science--God did not simply drop your computer out of the sky onto your desk one day, people had to invent it. The medical innovations that enable doctors to remove a tumor from someone's brain did not happen because God magically gave someone a blueprint, but because humans set out to improve the lives of others. If Christians had their way, we would still be living as primitively as people in the Old Testament, attributing everything from crop failure to earthquakes to some mysterious genie-in-the-sky and being content to never make new discoveries or new inventions. Thanks to scientists fighting constantly against ignorant religious folk who would hold the world back, people can live longer, healthier lives. Life isn't perfect because of science, but it is much better than it was when "Goddidit" was the blindly-accepted reason for everything.

Your contention that a belief in God somehow makes one more moral can be disproven by even the most cursory examination of Christian history. Read up on the Inquistions, the witch hunts, the Crusades. Read how Hitler believed himself to be doing the will of God, and exterminated 6 million people because of it. The news is filled with stories of Christian priests and pastors, ministers and missionaries abusing children, raping female parishioners, stealing thousands from the church coffers, harassing and even killing gays, picketing and sometimes burning abortion clinics....And they do it all in the name of God, who either doesn't mind, doesn't care, or is helpless to stop it all. Belief in God gives people free reign to do whatever they want to because their God will forgive them no matter what. Lack of such belief forces people to take responsibility for their actions and not blame them on some imaginary devil or god (and really, what's the difference?).

Answer 5

first of all a aithiest is a believer because he be-lieves ther is no god.so there both easy. but whats hard is chooseing the right one an aithiest has no purpose thats why he die's searching.but for those who believe in god they have a porpose and there searching stop since nothing greater or more amazing then the creator the all knowing all powerful.eternal and omnipresent .and omniscience

Answer 6

Clim. First, we DO have morality and beliefs. Even better, we actually value them in themselves and not because some deity is going to reward or punish us. That's because they are developed out of an understanding of the human condition, not the rantings of ancient tribal herd leaders.

By the way, I would suggest that atheists who think everything can be explained by science are very young. There is no need to explain "everything" scientifically.

Boring? Do you think it's somehow "exciting" to surrender my intellectual curiosity to something like "it's God's will?" I think you mean it would be less effort.

Answer 7

Morals and values cannot be determined by science.

Not being an atheist myself, I can only guess that the fun comes when you get to make up your own rules and change your values whenever you like because accountability only goes so far as what another person knows about you.

Atheists can be quite creative.

Take the big bang theory for instance.

Answer 8

Excellent question. Many people would say it's easier not to believe, and for much of my life, I agreed. But decades later, as I tried to answer all my own questions about this and that in life, beyond the little scientific ones or psychological ones or philosophical ones, it became harder and harder not to believe in Jesus our Christ. Why? Because all my questions kept leading to Him as The Answer. It reminds me of a story the 60 Minutes program did on tv decades ago about a professor at Harvard or Yale or somesuch Ivy League university who had more MD's and PhD's, etc, after his name than could be believed, and whoever was the moderator was at that time that was doing the program asked this professor who was the most popular professor on campus, "With all that you know, what's the most important thing you know?" And I remember how the professor looked directly back at the moderator, and with no hesitation whatsoever, and with an intensity in his voice that tears sounded close to his eyes, and did become close to mine, he replied, "The most important thing I know is how very little we really know." And the moderator was so surprised, and told the professor so, considering how many doctoral degrees he held. So, is "science" in its many forms really giving conclusive answers? Obviously not. Does God? Obviously. Is He easy to figure out? Hardly. You're not God and neither am I, or, as said by a Catholic priest in the movie "Rudy", to Rudy when he was in the midst of more intense praying in order to get into Notre Dame University, "In 35 years of religious study, I've come to two hard, incontrovertible facts. There is a God, and I'm not Him." So, does relating to God take time and energy? Very much so. Will science and education, with all its "hard data" ever come close to covering all that God is or knows. What a laugh. Hang in there in your relationship with Jesus our Christ. This "old man", as my son calls me, has spent many a year looking for the answers and trying to keep Jesus out of it. What a laugh. I finally came upon the reality that Jesus IS the Answer. An easy answer? In some ways yes, but the hardest part was how to carry out His Answers in everyday life, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm far from an expert at it, so forgive me. And God Bless you!!

Answer 9

For me it is easier to believe. I have never not believed and there have been times when bad things have happened in my life and I have TRIED not to believe. I guess to spite God or something and then it's like I know that God exist and it's just like ok, God, I know that you exist now help me get through this knowing that you are there knowing exactly what I am going through. The times that I tried not to believe I felt tortured.

Answer 10

Believing also makes you think everything can be explained with science, because God is the Creator of science.

Why do people separate religion and science? They go hand in hand.

Answer 11

i have better morals as an atheist than most christians. god tells you: do this. you just DO it. you don't ask why. as an atheist i have to create my OWN standards, i have to answer my own questions: why is it wrong to kill? to you, it's because god says so. is that a good answer? no. it's crap. beliveing makes you a weak-minded idiot.

believing does NOT "make you have some kind of values and beliefs". believing merely means you're incapable of using your mind and thinking for yourself. you're confused. and it's sad. it's sad because a lot of people are confused like you.