How does trading a non-existent soul to a non-existent "God" make you a better person?

Question

Under general Christian rules, Christians give their "souls" to "God" for an exemption to the penalties for "sin."

How does that make anyone a better person?

(items within " " do not exist in any discernible way, so can be considered to not exist)

It is obvious "God" does not exist in any discernible way by the answers people who claim to know he exists routinely give.

The obviousness is in their contradictory and/or vague answers about his appearance, abilities, intentions and other attributes.

Merely stating "God exists" does not alter the fact God does NOT exist in any discernible way.

Answer 1

Good question. Nobody really knows if there is a God, and if there is, He (She,It) is most certainly not the trite anthropomorphic creature found, for example, in the Bible.
For that matter, nobody knows even if there is a soul, either.
Because life can be painful and difficult, mankind has invented these concepts for his own worldly comfort, and as an economic method to help the wealthy rule the "rabble."
The world would be a better place without codified, dogmatic religion, which is a meme spread like a virus, an infection of the intellect. The individual must search for his own god within, if there is one to be found.
In fact, if there were such a thing as sin in the religious sense of the word, I believe the most unforgiveable one is never to have thought for one's self. (Bible believers please take note.)

Answer 2

Based on your description, I *don't* think it makes anyone a better person. (i.e., I agree)

I simply think your original description is inaccurate. You're operating from the same sort of intellectual platform/assumptions that legalist fundamentalists operate from.

Step outside your assumed paradigm and view Christianity as a relationship, not as a "soul-bartering" system meant for the benefit of the "poor unfortunate mortal otherwise condemned to hell," and you might get a better picture of the reality of it.

One of the more insightful common-place examples that describes Christianty is the parent-child relationship -- not the dysfunctional abusive one, but a mature, committed family relationship.

The parable of "The Prodigal Son" best describes the attitude of the father -- i.e., God's position -- in this relationship. You probably already know it, since you seem to be well-read. I would look through it again and note the attitudes and behaviors of the son, father, and older brother, in the context of the culture at the time Jesus offered the parable, and see what it suggests.

In your later writing here, I will note that the comment, "Merely stating 'God exists' does not alter the fact God does NOT exist in any discernible way" isn't much better than the sort of rigid Christianity you're knocking.

After all, what does "discernable" mean? Obviously people are "discerning" things that you are not.

The question in that case is whether they're completely misguided, or whether you're using inapplicable criteria and/or dismissing certain types of "discernment" out of hand simply because you don't possess them yourself or they don't personally satisfy you.

Unfortunately, you can't prove your case, nor can they. It's the "thrill" of dealing with subjective experience.

So why are you taking such a rigid stance? The amount of certainty you express in your argument seems illogical to me. Certainly suggest that God doesn't exist, but claiming such authority as you've done here seems to be a stretch to me.

Answer 3

Clearly it doesn't. However, what you probably really want to know is how people who believe in such entities might argue that the exchange would make you a better person.

However, before we could do that we would have to establish a whole host of things:
What is a soul?
What understanding of God is being played with?
How would we know what a better person is?

Also, as a Christian, I don't recognise the characterisation of what is supposed to be my faith in what you write. So you may need, also, to think about which religious group you really mean and ask them directly.

Sorry it's not an answer but I have doubts that it is really a question!

Answer 4

Why do you ask the question if you think you already have the answer?
Are you honestly expecting an answer from this? Would you even take it into account? Would you be willing to modify your beliefs if you see a convincing enough argument or at least to research the foundations of what you're saying?
I don't think you are, so what's the point of asking this. It looks like you're just trying to attack people that have those beliefs you disagree with. That, for sure, doesn't make YOU a better person.
Keep your beliefs and your anger and let's see where that takes you. I will keep mine. But the difference is that I won't harass anybody for that.

Answer 5

J T,
You must have some kind of idea that you are asking a question with definitive parameters predeciding the nature of the inquiry. Non-existance is your faith. You have no proof of nonexistance and the problem of proving it isn't mine. I know the arguements for proving a negative so it is by faith that you have accepted nonexistance.

I can't tell you sufficiently the things you miss because you are either in denial about your own spirit, or that your spirit never reacts to anything.

Sorry about that ol' chap.

"How does that make anyone a better person?"
My goal isn't to become a better person, tht's God's job. And with faith I get to enjoy the relationship I have with His Word, and His Spirit.

So don't worry about it. You are just stuck in your hatred of those like me. Bad childhood experience?

Sorry about that too, ol' chap.

Answer 6

honestly. get over it. you arent offending anyone, and all you are doing is just making a bunch of insecure people feel better because you are wrong too. You are making a bigger mistake than anyone ever could. You are trading paradise and love for eternity, for at the most 90 some years of ignorance and denial that is fueled by your wish not to conform and make your self feel intellectual. You are sad at best. And i know you love to tell people not to because that makes you cool on Yahoo! Answers, but i prayed that you would get over yourself and accept the reality that is God through Jesus.
Thanks,
Matt Hafer (former Atheist, current Pastor, future resident of Heaven)

Answer 7

In the rare circumstance that it makes someone a better person, I would support it. We are not all wired the same way. For instance, if I accepted Christ as my savior, I would use it as a license to do as I wanted, and repent for it later. As for it's existence, neither supposition can be proved, to prove one is to prove the validity of the other. As a thinking man, you should know that what is good for me, is not necessarily good for you, and vice versa.

Answer 8

Actually it's more like this:

Jesus died on the cross as a payment for my sins. So when I ask Jesus to be the Lord in my life, I am saying to him that I recognize that I have not lived a life that honors my creator, I accept his payment for my sins, and I now seek to follow him for the rest of my existence.

This does not make me a better person, but Jesus begins the cleansing act of sanctification in my soul. That means that he slowly molds me into who I am created to be, taking away those things that I do which I ought not do, and causing me to desire to do those things which I ought to do as a child of God.

You know David's psalm: "Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, oh lord, and renew a right spirit within me."

So it is the sanctifing work of the Holy Spirit within me that accomplishes this task.

Btw. Did you know that "sin" is an old English archery term for missing the bullseye. The idea of sin is that there is a standard of character and conduct and righteousness etc. that God has in mind for a member of the human race. When we sin, we miss the mark of what God intended for our lives.

"God" is the creator and sustainer of the universe - the one who lends you ever breath that you take, who formed you in the womb, and who spoke the universe into existence.

Answer 9

Well, believers seem to think that athiests are immoral people because they don't believe.
My theory is that, for the people who think that way, their god is the only thing keeping them from being horrible immoral people.
So....if believing in god is what's keeping them from lying, cheating, stealing, and killing....and if they didn't believe, they wouldn't be able to keep from doing these things...then I'm all for them believing. If that's what it takes to make them be good, awesome.
So, in that case, giving their "souls" to "god" does make them better people.

Either that or athiests are not such bad people after all =)

Answer 10

You must have hit the bizarre theology class. As I have stated before, Swedenborg's doctrine is the correct doctrine. God did not pre-pay for our sins. You have to repent.